First, a thin sheet of silica was placed on the tip of an optical fiber and then an ion beam was used to cut out the shape of the house and its windows. To fold the walls up, the ion beam was used to just score the silica membrane, and once it was thin enough, it folded up 90 degrees all on its own. Once the walls and roof were in place, the µRobotex system used gas injection to stick the edges together and a low-power ion beam to create a tiled pattern on the roof.

Most of the process was automated, but the team is working to make the entire assembly automatic. The researchers are also aiming to create even small structures that could fit onto carbon nanotubes 20 to 100 nanometers in diameter.