Self-assembly of silicon particles using magnetic levitation

In this work, self-assembly of cubic silicon particles into a crystalline formation using magnetic levitation is presented. A self-assembly set-up was created and characterised. Template-free self-assembly of hydrophilic particles is compared against (1) template-free self-assembly of hydrophilic particles and (2) templated self-assembly of hydrophilic particles. The results show that (1) hydrophobic funcionalisation up to a certain hydrophobicity increased the quality of a self-assembled agglomerate and (2) templated self-assembly increased the amound of good contaacts by a factor two compared to template-free self-assembly. The ultimate goal is full three-dimentional microfabrication capabilities.