Interfacial physics in meniscus-confined electrodeposition and its applications for fabricating electronic structures

Abstract

A novel three-dimensional micro-/nano-fabrication method, the meniscus-confined electrodeposition, was developed and studied. It exploits the thermodynamic stability of a microscale or nanoscale liquid meniscus to direct-write pure metallic three-dimensional structures of designed shapes and sizes in an ambient air environment. This technique is cost-effective to implement and is based on the principle of electrodeposition, and can thus be applied to fabricate structures made of a wide variety of materials. In this work, theoretically, a detailed analysis was provided for describing the growth parameters essential for the meniscus-confined electrodeposition process; experimentally, various techniques were developed to fabricate structures with demanding shapes and dimensions for specific electrical and electrochemical applications.