To ensure UK industry's global leadership in advanced manufacturing and the need to access to the multi-billion pounds nanoscale products market, building on Strathclyde's world-leading research in hybrid machine design and rolling nanoelectrode lithography (RNEL) technology, this proposal attempts to establish a new flexible and reconfigurable hybrid precision manufacturing platform (HPMP) for low-cost and high-throughput production of nanoscale products possessing various structures from ground-breaking sub-nanometre to micrometre scales, with nanoscale precision over large areas (cm^2 in this project, but scalable to m^2) of various materials. This low-cost nanoscale precision 'lab-to-fab' low-to-medium volume production platform will significantly enhance the producibility and productivity of nanoscale products for information communication technology (ICT), photonic, semiconductor, microelectronic and emerging quantum technology industry sectors to address the grand challenges of an AI & data-driven economy (Internet of Things (IoTs), data storage, quantum computing & communication devices), clean growth (plasmonic solar cells), future mobility (light detection and ranging) and an aging society (medical detection & diagnostic devices) in accordance with the UK Industrial Strategy. The project will transform the research outcome to industry and our society through knowledge exchange, training, industrial demonstration and deployment.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

We have carefully planned this research programme to pioneer a wholly new capability in ultrasonic particle manipulation to allow electronic sonotweezers to take their place alongside optical tweezers, dielectrophoresis and other techniques in the present and future particle manipulation toolkit.Following end-user demand, particle manipulation is a rapidly growing field, notably applied to the life sciences, with emerging applications in analysis and sorting, measurement of cell forces and tissue engineering. Existing devices have valuable capabilities but also limits in terms of forces that can be produced and measured, particle sizes that can be handled, their range of compatible buffer characteristics and sensitivity to heating, and suitability for integration with sensors in low cost devices. Key to our programme is the concept of dynamic potential energy landscapes and the established ability of ultrasound to create such landscapes, potentially to generate forces under electronic / computer control. Our principal technical aim is to exploit this in integrated sonotweezers to apply and measure larger forces over longer length scales, extend micromanipulation to larger particles, and demonstrate this in pathfinder applications in life sciences.To achieve our aims, we have already carried out successful feasibility studies and brought together an outstanding multidisciplinary team of investigators including internationally established members, some of the UK's most exciting young scientists and engineers, and appropriate overseas collaborators. Such a team is a prerequisite for what we recognise as a challenging, highly complex, densely interlinked programme. Over its four years, with strong management and built-in research flexibility, we will explore key areas of science, technology and applications to create and demonstrate electronic sonotweezers. Throughout the work, there will be parallel activity in understanding of physical principles, modelling and design, state-of-the-art fabrication, sensor integration, and applications testing.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.