## 4 Cost-Effective Transfer Setups
As discussed in the previous section, the authors of [PERSON] et al. [82] have gone a step further and demonstrated the creation of hBN-encapsulated black phosphorous (BP) heterostructures in an inert-atmosphere gloveless anaerobic chamber (see Figure 4). In their work, the transfer steps were carried out using a transfer setup based of a high-quality zoom lens set from Edmund Optics but with no heating stage (similar to [PERSON] et al. [81]. However, the integration of the transfer system into a commercial anaerobic chamber meant that the total cost of the system was very high (~USD 23,000 as reported [82]). Upon briefly reviewing the above works, a few limitations may be noticed. For instance, despite the use of XY9 manipulators, the main usefulness of this type of stage, namely, the formation of twisted 2D heterostructures, was not demonstrated in these reports using a low-cost setup. Second, a low-cost setup can benefit greatly from a light-weight PID-controlled power supply, instead of conventional laboratory power sources, to drive the heating stage. This helps with lowering cost, increases portability, and allows for quick and easy implementation of the hot pickup process. Third, the versatility of the system to cover other transfer techniques, such as the recently popular capillary-force-assisted wetting PDMS technique [122; 123; 124], was not adequately studied using low-cost setups. Finally, although the possibility of incorporating such low-cost setups into commercial glovebox systems has been explored, these units are way too expensive for implementation in budget-restricted research groups. These proved an impediment for researchers eager to work with air-sensitive 2D materials. Figure 5: Low-cost (under USD 1000) 2D material transfer setups. (**a–c**) Images of the assembled low-cost system by [PERSON] et al. [81], highlighting key components and details used for the deterministic transfer process. The right panels show zoomed-in images of the stamp clamping and fixture to the XYZ stage, and the stamp assembly. Reproduced from [81] under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license. (**d**) Low-cost setup used by [PERSON] et al. [102], showing the modular microscope used in conjunction with the substrate and stamp manipulators. Adapted from [102] under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license. (**e–h**) Low-cost transfer system reported by [PERSON] et al. [83]. Adapted from [83] under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. (**e**) Image showing the main components of the low-cost 2D material transfer system. The inset shows the optical image taken at the maximum zoom level of the imaging system. (**f**) Zoomed-in image showing how the glass slide and stamp assembly are affixed to the XYZ stage, including options for sample vacuum, auxiliary camera, and sample stage rotation. (**g**) Lateral view from the auxiliary camera showing the relative positions of the stamp and substrate. (**h**) Image of the PDMS-PPC stamp affixed onto a glass slide. The abovementioned shortcomings were later addressed in the work of [PERSON] et al. [83] in 2021. In their study, the authors developed an in-house, low-cost transfer system (Figure 5c) using readily available components from online stores. Their system is both budget-friendly and compact, offering features such as PID-controlled substrate heating, thermal isolation for the sample stage, XYZ0 and XYZ manipulators, and sample vacuum. Additionally, they illustrate how the proposed portable transfer setup can be easily integrated with a do-it-yourself (DIY), cost-effective (\(\sim\)USD 170) humidity (\(<\)4%)- and oxygen (\(<\)0.1%)-controlled inert-atmosphere glovebox (Figure 6). This modification enables quick adaptations for isolating and controlling environments during the exfoliation and transfer of sensitive 2D materials.