Fabrication and assembly behavior of square microcapsules

The use of silicon membranes in the fabrication of micrometer-sized square tubes and capsules, was analyzed. The Si pores of a membrane are modified with a polymer component such that a gap is created along the wall of the channel. It is observed that based on maximization capillary forces, face-to-face interactions are much lower in energy are much lower in energy than either face-to-face or edge-to-edge. For face-to-face interactions, the lowest energy is achieved when the two faces have the greatest overlap. The results show that sequential processing methods could be developed as part of a 'bottom-up' approach where initially end-to-end assembly at one relative density would allow the introduction of some circuit components.