A New Method for 3D Microstructure Fabrication via Ionic Wind

In this paper, a novel method of fabricating 3D microstructures of polymer film is proposed based on ionic wind. For the first time, it is observed experimentally that liquid polymer on conductive substrates with non-conductive patterns spontaneously converges from non-conductive areas to conductive areas under the action of ion wind. Taking advantage of such a flow phenomenon, polymer 3D micropatterns including bump arrays, well arrays, words and numbers are realized and the scale of these microstructures is from millimeter to micrometer.