Information About

	Micro-stereolithography method enables fully computerized fabrication of 3D micro-fuidic network at high-throughput

The McCormick School welcomed Cheng Sun as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in fall 2007. Sun comes from the University of California at Berkeley, where as senior research scientist he led the development of novel metamaterials that create properties that do not exist naturally, e.g. the negative refraction of light, a superlens
that breaks the diffraction limit, and negative modulus of acoustic materials. Using metamaterials, he also developed device applications for nano-imaging, nano-lithography, and bio-sensing. He completed his PhD at Pennsylvania State University, where as a graduate student researcher he developed a microstereolithography process for fabrication of complex three-dimensional microstructures and devices.

Nano-scale imaging using a silver superlens recorded the images of the word “NANO” at 60 nanometer resolution, much beyond the optical diffraction limit

During the course of his doctoral research, Sun became interested in integrating mechanical engineering and biology for basic science applications. Using the microstereolithography process, one can design and construct three-dimensional (3-D) micro-fluidic networks to guide cell growth in 3-D. This method has unique advantages in supporting the study of cell-cell and cellextracellular matrix interactions in a highly complicated 3-D environment. Ultimately, it could pave the way for the manufacture of large implantable tissues.

	Optical hyperlens that can magnify and project sub-di"raction-limited objects onto optical far-field.

After joining UC Berkeley, Sun became interested in developing novel metamaterials, a new class of man-made composites that exhibit exceptional properties not readily observed in nature. Therefore, a much broader materials parameter space can be made accessible for metamaterials for unique engineering applications. In work published in Science in 2005, Sun used a metamaterial superlens to record the images of an array of nanowires onto an organic polymer at a resolution of about 60 nanometers. In comparison, current optical microscopes can only make out details down to one-tenth the diameter of a red blood cell, or about 400 nanometers. In his more recent work, published in Science in 2007, Sun further demonstrated the metamaterial hyperlens magnifying sub-diffraction-limit image at far field. Sun’s research was highlighted in Nature, Science, Scientific American and has been featured in the international media. Having fielded several offers from top U.S. engineering programs, Sun is excited about starting his career at the McCormick School. At Northwestern, Sun will focus on the development and characterization of novel metamaterials for energy conversion and bio-sensing, as well as a 3-D fabrication methods for potential tissue engineering applications. Successful implementations of this research have the potential to dramatically improve the capability of biomedical diagnostics as well as energy conversion.

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