Continuous and scalable micro/nano-patterning on large substrates are highly desirable for both commercial and scientific interest, though difficult to be realized with the traditional lithographic processes. The recent advancements in micro/nano-manufacturing methodologies have enabled light management with micro/nano-surface relief structures on flexible materials, providing a unique strategy to manipulate light for imaging, lighting, glasses-free 3D display, and electromagnetic shielding with extra-large format. In this talk, the current status of micro/nano-patterning technologies for the manufacturing of photonic devices on flexible substrates will be summarized. Firstly, 86-inch format grayscale lithographic system has been developed for 2.5D micro/nano-surface relief structures. The range of depth is from 50nm to 20mm and the line width is 0.5mm-25mm with the 100nm data resolution. It takes about 96 hours to fabricate the designed 2.5D surface-relief structures with processing data up to 40Tb on the 86-inch format. Secondly, double-sided roll-to-roll nanoimprinting technology was developed for micro/nano-surface relief structures over the range of 50nm-20µm in depth. The alignment accuracy of micro/nano structures on double-sided nanoimprinting system was 50µm for a flexible substrate of 1000 meter long with roll-to-roll process. Thirdly, the integration of micro/nano-patterned substrates with the light manipulation in photonic devices will be discussed. The applications include AD-film for transparent conductive capacitive film for large scale touch panel, directional ultra-thin backlight for display, and light manipulation in three-dimensional display. Finally, potential development directions will be highlighted.

We introduce the US NSF Engineering Research Center for the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture (IoT4Ag). IoT4Ag aims to improve agricultural outcomes using highly distributed sensor technologies that monitor the soil and microclimate where plants are grown. We will describe example optical and RF sensors that use large-area, low-cost fabrication technologies, are biocompatible or biodegradable, communicate from above or below the soil surface, require zero or near-zero power, and are powered from biodegradable batteries, wireless power, and energy harvesting.

The implantable brain-computer interface is a direct connection between the human or animal brain and external equipment. The neural interface device is to record or stimulate neural activity, and directly connects the central nerve or peripheral nerve with the outside world, so as to realize the signal analysis and control of specific neurons. The research of BCI devices is of great significance for neuroscience, diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases, etc. This report mainly introduces implantable planar BCI devices and probe BCI devices based on MEMS technology. With the emergence of optogenetics, the study of neural circuits has been revolutionized. At the same time, a multifunctional BCI device with photoelectric integration is introduced.

As a consequence of the internet-of-things revolution, the number of connected devices worldwide is expected to increase to 50 - 200 billion by 2020. To maintain such a large network, there is a need for wireless sensors with dimensions and power consumption that are orders of magnitude smaller than the state-of-the-art. Energy is the key challenge. Batteries have limited capacity, and existing sensors are not "smart" enough to identify targets of interest. Therefore, they consume power continuously to monitor the environment even when there is no relevant data to be detected. This talk presents a new class of zero-power microsystems that fundamentally brake this paradigm, remaining dormant, with zero-power consumption, until awakened by a specific physical signature associated with an event of interest. In particular, we demonstrate infrared digitizing sensors that consist of plasmonically enhanced micromechanical photoswitches (PMPs) that selectively harvest the impinging electromagnetic energy in design-defined spectral bands of interest and use it to create mechanically a conducting channel between two electrical contacts, without the need for any additional power source. Such a passive IR digitizer is capable of producing a wake-up bit when exposed to a specific IR spectral signature associated to a target of interest (such as the exhaust plume of a car, a forest fire, or a human body) while rejecting background interference. The capability of these zero-power sensors of consuming power only when useful information is present results in a nearly unlimited duration of operation, with a groundbreaking impact on the proliferation of the IoT.

This talk addresses some of the key challenges in the field of motile microbotics, including on-chip microelectronic integration, wireless energy transfer, real-time deep tissue imaging, active targeted drug delivery and motion through biofluids. We consider synthetic microrobotic systems as well as biohybrid single cellular cyborgs. Emerging applications in the biomedical sector such as cancer treatment and artificial fertilization will be highlighted.

Due to the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth in mobile communications, more performant filters must be implemented. In particular, it is not yet clear what the long-term solution for 5G filtering in the New Radio (NR) bands will be. In my talk I will present our current work on this area, focusing on electromechanical-based filters using thin films of either lithium niobate or aluminum scandium nitride.

Micro/nano engineering can provide for new capabilities in medical diagnosis. To overcome the challenges of detecting targets with high sensitivity and specificity from real-world samples, we recently developed technologies to isolate cancer biomarkers in blood samples and discover viruses from environmental samples. Nanomaterials and nanomaterial-integrated microdevices are key to high device performance, while system integration and instrumentation will be key for technology adoption.