Rice Engineers Develop Microwave Printing Tech to Fuse Circuits Onto Anything

New 'Meta-NFS' device allows 3D printing of electronics on delicate surfaces like plants and bones.

Apr. 17, 2026 at 3:23pm

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An abstract painting in muted earth tones featuring sweeping geometric shapes, concentric circles, and precise spirals, conveying the structural complexity and focused energy of the Meta-NFS microwave printing technology.The Meta-NFS device's ability to precisely focus microwave energy enables a new era of 3D printed electronics on delicate and temperature-sensitive materials.Houston Today

Engineers at Rice University have developed a novel microwave-based 3D printing technique called Meta-NFS that can fuse conductive inks onto a wide range of materials, including living plants, plastic, silicone, paper, and even bone. The key innovation is a custom device that concentrates microwave energy into an area smaller than 200 micrometers, allowing it to selectively heat and sinter the printed material without damaging the underlying surface.

Why it matters

This breakthrough addresses a longstanding challenge in printed electronics - how to cure conductive inks without destroying the delicate surface they are printed on. The Meta-NFS system opens up new possibilities for integrating electronics onto a wide range of substrates, from biomedical implants to soft robotics, that were previously off-limits due to heat sensitivity.

The details

The Meta-NFS device combines a split-ring resonator (a tiny loop that traps and amplifies electromagnetic energy) with a tapered tip that squeezes that energy into an extremely small zone. This allows it to heat only the freshly deposited conductive ink to over 160°C, fusing the nanoparticles into working circuitry, while leaving the surrounding material virtually untouched. The team has demonstrated printing conductive microstructures directly onto a living plant leaf, plastic, silicone, paper, and even a bovine femur bone.

  • The research was published in the journal Science Advances on April 17, 2026.

The players

Yong Lin Kong

An assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Rice University's George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing, who led the research on the Meta-NFS 3D printing technology.

Rice University

A private research university located in Houston, Texas, where the Meta-NFS printing technology was developed by the engineering team.

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What they’re saying

“The ability to selectively heat the printed materials enables us to spatially program the ink's functional properties, even when surrounded by temperature-sensitive material. This allows us to integrate freeform electronics onto a broad range of substrates, including biopolymers and living biological tissue, all within a desktop-size printer without the needs of complex facilities or labor-intensive manual processes.”

— Yong Lin Kong, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

What’s next

The Rice team is now working on expanding the Meta-NFS technology to develop new classes of hybrid electronic devices, including ingestible systems for personalized diagnostics, bionic devices that interface directly with organs, and next-generation soft robots with deeply integrated electronics.

The takeaway

This microwave-based 3D printing breakthrough from Rice University opens up exciting new possibilities for seamlessly integrating electronics onto a wide range of delicate and temperature-sensitive materials, from living plants to medical implants. The ability to selectively sinter conductive inks without damaging the underlying substrate could enable a new generation of smart, connected products across industries.