Field-Programmed (De)manufacturing and Smart Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing offers exceptional control over external geometry, but precise control of internal structures (network topology, phase organization, interfaces, and local properties) remains difficult. Most manufacturing methods also focus on building materials and offer limited ability to modify or selectively disassemble them later. We are seeking to answer a key question: How can light and sound program material formation, transformation, and disassembly across length scales? We study how optical and acoustic fields couple with reaction kinetics, heat and mass transport, fluid flow, phase evolution, and mechanics. By integrating functional ink design, additive manufacturing, ultrasound, multiphysics modeling, imaging, and machine learning, we develop grayscale and hybrid light-based printing, deep-penetration acoustic volumetric printing, acoustic manufacturing of hierarchical composites, and field-programmed depolymerization. We aim to establish a predictive science of field–reaction–transport–mechanics coupling in evolving materials. This framework extends manufacturing from controlling shape to programming internal structure and life-cycle transformation, enabling through-barrier fabrication, damage-tolerant composites, adaptive process control, repair, material recovery, and more sustainable manufacturing.

Deep-penetration acoustic volumetric printing (DAVP) was developed using self-enhancing sono-inks and focused ultrasound (FUS) writing. The understanding of ultrasound-matter interactions by experiments and multiphysics modeling guided the general design of self-enhancing sono-inks with deep penetration, low acoustic streaming, and rapid sono-polymerization. The sono-thermal heating at the FUS focus enables fast and selective material-solidification as the building voxel. Sizable opaque composite hydrogels can be volumetrically printed without a build-platform even through centimeter-thick tissues. (Science, 2023)