Investigation of Surface Tension Effects of a Water-Hexadecane Interface on Silicon Microparts

Assembly at sub-millimeter dimensions is a challenging process that is often not economically feasible. This limits many systems to in-situ fabrication from compatible materials. If freed from these limitations on processes and materials, it might be possible to improve microsystem performance. One critical application of recent interest is in the assembly of small crystalline photovoltaic cells onto low-cost and possibly flexible modules [1]