Cleanroom-Free Toolkit for Patterning Submicron-Resolution Bioelectronics on Flexibles

Xudong Tao; Alejandro Carnicer-Lombarte; Antonio Dominguez-Alfaro; Luke Gatecliff; Ji Zhang; Sophia Bidinger; Scott T. Keene; Salim El Hadwe; Chaoqun Dong; Alexander J. Boys; Christopher Slaughter; Ruben Ruiz-Mateos Serrano; Jakob Chovas; Marco Vinicio Alban-Paccha; Damiano Barone; Sohini Kar-Narayan; George G. Malliaras

doi:10.1002/smll.202411979

Cleanroom-Free Toolkit for Patterning Submicron-Resolution Bioelectronics on Flexibles

Xudong Tao, Alejandro Carnicer-Lombarte, Antonio Dominguez-Alfaro, Luke Gatecliff, Ji Zhang, Sophia Bidinger, Scott T. Keene, Salim El Hadwe, Chaoqun Dong, Alexander J. Boys, Christopher Slaughter, Ruben Ruiz-Mateos Serrano, Jakob Chovas, Marco Vinicio Alban-Paccha, Damiano Barone, Sohini Kar-Narayan, George G. Malliaras^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

1 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Fabricating flexible bioelectronics remains an ongoing challenge in pursuing a cost-effective, efficient, scalable, and environmentally friendly approach for research and commercial applications. The current dominant method, lithography, presents challenges due to its incompatibility with solvent-sensitive biomaterials and the phase mismatch between the photoresist and flexible substrates, such as elastomers. This study proposes a simplified, cleanroom-free toolkit as a potential alternative to lithography for fabricating intricate bioelectronics on flexible substrates with submicron resolution. This technique integrates a two-photon laser writing mask, mask transfer, and multi-layer/material patterning processes, enabling batch-to-batch processing and making it suitable for scalable production. With excellent conformal patterning capability, different functional and encapsulation biomaterials can be patterned on flexible substrates, including elastomers, parylene-C, polymer sheets, skin, fabric, and plant leaves. The versatility of this toolkit is validated by fabricating various prototypes of wearable and implantable bioelectronics, demonstrating excellent performance. © 2025 The Author(s). Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Original language	English
Article number	2411979
Number of pages	11
Journal	Small
Volume	21
Issue number	14
Online published	7 Mar 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202411979
Publication status	Published - 9 Apr 2025
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the foundation of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Targeted Delivery for Hard-to-Treat Cancers (EP/S009000/1). S.K.-N. acknowledges funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government's Horizon Europe funding guarantee (EP/Y032535/1). J.Z. acknowledges support from EPSRC Cambridge NanoDTC (EP/S022953/1) and Cambridge Trust.

Research Keywords

flexible bioelectronics
submicron patterning
two-photon laser

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This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Tao, X., Carnicer-Lombarte, A., Dominguez-Alfaro, A., Gatecliff, L., Zhang, J., Bidinger, S., Keene, S. T., Hadwe, S. E., Dong, C., Boys, A. J., Slaughter, C., Ruiz-Mateos Serrano, R., Chovas, J., Alban-Paccha, M. V., Barone, D., Kar-Narayan, S., & Malliaras, G. G. (2025). Cleanroom-Free Toolkit for Patterning Submicron-Resolution Bioelectronics on Flexibles. Small, 21(14), Article 2411979. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202411979

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abstract = "Fabricating flexible bioelectronics remains an ongoing challenge in pursuing a cost-effective, efficient, scalable, and environmentally friendly approach for research and commercial applications. The current dominant method, lithography, presents challenges due to its incompatibility with solvent-sensitive biomaterials and the phase mismatch between the photoresist and flexible substrates, such as elastomers. This study proposes a simplified, cleanroom-free toolkit as a potential alternative to lithography for fabricating intricate bioelectronics on flexible substrates with submicron resolution. This technique integrates a two-photon laser writing mask, mask transfer, and multi-layer/material patterning processes, enabling batch-to-batch processing and making it suitable for scalable production. With excellent conformal patterning capability, different functional and encapsulation biomaterials can be patterned on flexible substrates, including elastomers, parylene-C, polymer sheets, skin, fabric, and plant leaves. The versatility of this toolkit is validated by fabricating various prototypes of wearable and implantable bioelectronics, demonstrating excellent performance. {\textcopyright} 2025 The Author(s). Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.",

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Tao, X, Carnicer-Lombarte, A, Dominguez-Alfaro, A, Gatecliff, L, Zhang, J, Bidinger, S, Keene, ST, Hadwe, SE, Dong, C, Boys, AJ, Slaughter, C, Ruiz-Mateos Serrano, R, Chovas, J, Alban-Paccha, MV, Barone, D, Kar-Narayan, S & Malliaras, GG 2025, 'Cleanroom-Free Toolkit for Patterning Submicron-Resolution Bioelectronics on Flexibles', Small, vol. 21, no. 14, 2411979. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202411979

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T1 - Cleanroom-Free Toolkit for Patterning Submicron-Resolution Bioelectronics on Flexibles

AU - Tao, Xudong

AU - Carnicer-Lombarte, Alejandro

AU - Dominguez-Alfaro, Antonio

AU - Gatecliff, Luke

AU - Zhang, Ji

AU - Bidinger, Sophia

AU - Keene, Scott T.

AU - Hadwe, Salim El

AU - Dong, Chaoqun

AU - Boys, Alexander J.

AU - Slaughter, Christopher

AU - Ruiz-Mateos Serrano, Ruben

AU - Chovas, Jakob

AU - Alban-Paccha, Marco Vinicio

AU - Barone, Damiano

AU - Kar-Narayan, Sohini

AU - Malliaras, George G.

PY - 2025/4/9

Y1 - 2025/4/9

N2 - Fabricating flexible bioelectronics remains an ongoing challenge in pursuing a cost-effective, efficient, scalable, and environmentally friendly approach for research and commercial applications. The current dominant method, lithography, presents challenges due to its incompatibility with solvent-sensitive biomaterials and the phase mismatch between the photoresist and flexible substrates, such as elastomers. This study proposes a simplified, cleanroom-free toolkit as a potential alternative to lithography for fabricating intricate bioelectronics on flexible substrates with submicron resolution. This technique integrates a two-photon laser writing mask, mask transfer, and multi-layer/material patterning processes, enabling batch-to-batch processing and making it suitable for scalable production. With excellent conformal patterning capability, different functional and encapsulation biomaterials can be patterned on flexible substrates, including elastomers, parylene-C, polymer sheets, skin, fabric, and plant leaves. The versatility of this toolkit is validated by fabricating various prototypes of wearable and implantable bioelectronics, demonstrating excellent performance. © 2025 The Author(s). Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

AB - Fabricating flexible bioelectronics remains an ongoing challenge in pursuing a cost-effective, efficient, scalable, and environmentally friendly approach for research and commercial applications. The current dominant method, lithography, presents challenges due to its incompatibility with solvent-sensitive biomaterials and the phase mismatch between the photoresist and flexible substrates, such as elastomers. This study proposes a simplified, cleanroom-free toolkit as a potential alternative to lithography for fabricating intricate bioelectronics on flexible substrates with submicron resolution. This technique integrates a two-photon laser writing mask, mask transfer, and multi-layer/material patterning processes, enabling batch-to-batch processing and making it suitable for scalable production. With excellent conformal patterning capability, different functional and encapsulation biomaterials can be patterned on flexible substrates, including elastomers, parylene-C, polymer sheets, skin, fabric, and plant leaves. The versatility of this toolkit is validated by fabricating various prototypes of wearable and implantable bioelectronics, demonstrating excellent performance. © 2025 The Author(s). Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

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KW - submicron patterning

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DO - 10.1002/smll.202411979

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Cleanroom-Free Toolkit for Patterning Submicron-Resolution Bioelectronics on Flexibles

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Research Keywords

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