Our Mission

At MicroField we turn micro-transfer-printing (μTP) into a dependable, repeatable manufacturing method for building smart micro-systems. Working inside a genuine semiconductor foundry, we place pre-processed compound-semiconductor devices, thin-film optical filters and purpose-built sensors onto finished wafers with micron-scale accuracy. The result is a practical route to system-on-wafer and system-in-package products that would be impractical to fabricate monolithically, giving designers a far wider palette of materials and functions on a single piece of silicon.

What We Set Out to Achieve

Our work spans the full chain of modern chip making: refining semiconductor fabrication, maturing micro-transfer-printing into a manufacturable process, and tightening the integration, design and test flows that bring smart systems to life. We concentrate on the demanding realities of chip design and rigorous electrical testing, so that a promising idea survives the journey from a research sample to a product that can be built in quantity.

• Moving micro-transfer-printing (μTP) out of the laboratory and onto a real production floor. Bridging the gap between a convincing demonstration and high-volume manufacturing is where most advanced techniques stall, so we focus on the yield, repeatability and handling problems that only appear at scale, and on the equipment and process controls needed to solve them.
• Standing up an accessible micro-transfer-printing capability within a working fabrication environment, open to engineers from both research and industry. Sharing a proven line lets newcomers evaluate the technology against their own designs without first building the infrastructure themselves, shortening the path from concept to a qualified, scalable process.
• Writing robust design rules and folding them into Process Design Kits (PDKs). Clear geometric and electrical constraints are what let a complex integrated circuit be fabricated reliably, and a well-maintained PDK is the contract between the designer and the fab. Getting these rules right stops defects before a single wafer is ever started.
• Proving the technology across several demanding applications, from high-sensitivity magnetic and optical sensing to integrated photonic links. Each application stresses a different aspect of placement accuracy, thermal behaviour and long-term reliability, and together they show that a single μTP platform can serve very different product families rather than one narrow niche.
• Developing processes that join dissimilar technologies — such as standard Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) logic and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) structures — on the same substrate. Precise alignment and reliable electrical and mechanical bonding between different wafer types make it possible to build devices that are smaller, faster and more efficient than any single process could deliver, opening the door to advanced sensing, miniaturised medical devices and richer consumer electronics.
• Scaling the printing processes to 200 mm and 150 mm silicon wafers. Transferring components accurately across a full production wafer is what turns a laboratory result into an economic process, and much of our effort goes into achieving high resolution and high yield on these standard substrate sizes while keeping the method compatible with existing fab equipment.

Why Micro-Transfer-Printing Matters

Years of research have shown that micro-transfer-printing works; the harder question is whether it can be trusted in production. MicroField answers that by operating an open, foundry-based capability that demonstrates heterogeneous integration across a range of real applications. The method itself is elegant: a micro-patterned elastomer stamp lifts tiny functional components — anywhere from a few microns to several hundred microns across — from the wafer they were made on and sets them down precisely on a completely different one, with few constraints on the size or material of either substrate. Because our work draws together everything from materials and tooling through chip design, processing and test to the finished application, it gives the wider electronics and semiconductor industry a practical way to combine the best of several technologies on one chip.