CAREER: High-Resolution Liquid Metal Patterning for Stretchable Electronics Through Self-Assembly and Transfer Printing

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award supports fundamental studies to enable scalable manufacturing of high-resolution, liquid metal-based stretchable electronics. Gallium-based liquid metals uniquely combine metallic conductivity and fluidity, making them attractive for applications in wearable biomedical devices, soft robotics, and human-machine interfaces. However, their high surface tension and spontaneous oxide formation pose challenges in patterning liquid metals with high resolution, throughput, and stretchability on a broad range of substrates—a critical obstacle to their wide adoption in high-performance stretchable electronics. This project seeks to address these limitations by developing a novel manufacturing approach that incorporates colloidal self-assembly, surface functionalization, and micro-transfer printing to enable scalable, high-resolution patterning of liquid metals on substrates with high stretchability. The knowledge generated from this work will advance the synthesis, processing, and functionalization of liquid metals for a wide range of applications, including bioelectronics, thermal management, and soft robotics. This CAREER award also includes educational activities aimed at preparing future scientists and engineers in electronics manufacturing to meet the nation’s workforce needs. This project aims to address knowledge gaps in the physical properties of gallium-based liquid metals and realize high-resolution, high-throughput patterning. A new patterning approach will be developed, combining colloidal self-assembly of liquid metal particles with scalable transfer printing. High-resolution nanomechanical characterization of liquid metal particles, coupled with analytical modeling, will elucidate the processing physics. This self-assembly process will be combined with high-speed, roll-to-roll micro-transfer printing to fabricate liquid metal patterns on various substrates. Furthermore, this project will investigate process-structure-property relationships that govern the patterning resolution and the mechanical and electromechanical properties of multiscale liquid metals formed through this approach. By combining advanced micro/nano-fabrication, material characterization, and modeling, this project will advance the knowledge base of multiscale mechanical and electromechanical properties of liquid metals, enabling scalable production of next-generation liquid metal-based stretchable electronics. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.