Scientists at ETH Zurich and IBM Research Zurich hold developed a recent technique that enables for the first time the manufacture of complexly structured tiny objects joining together microspheres. The objects hold a size of just a few micrometres and are produced in a modular fashion,making it possible to program their design in such a way that each component exhibits different physical properties. After fabrication, it is also very simple to bring the micro-objects into solution. This makes the recent technique substantially different from micro 3D printing technology. With most of today's micro 3D printing technologies, or objects can only be manufactured whether they consist of a single material,hold a uniform structure and are attached to a surface during production.
Source: phys.org