US Patent 11904585 Programmable adhesion using nonlinear Kirigami structures

The invention relates to an adhesive system comprising a fabricated structure having alternating regions that are unpatterned and patterned along its longitudinal length. Patterned regions have at least one subregion with a non-linear cut relative to the transverse direction across the width of the structure. The geometry, location of the subregion(s), number of nonlinear cuts, and other parameters allow tuning as well as pinpoint programming of the adhesive properties either along the entire width and length or the strip or just at pinpointed subregions of the strip. Such tuning can include not only adhesive strength, but its adhesive strength in certain peeling directions.