Nanostructured silicon flapping wing with higher strength and low reflectivity for solar powered MEMS aircraft

This work presents silicon flapping wings design with higher bending strength and low reflectivity for MEMS aircraft. The design was bio-inspired by the cicada wings which are having numerous nanostructures upon it. The nanostructure on silicon increases the bending strength by ~6 times. The higher strength silicon samples can successfully demonstrate the 100 μm thick bendable silicon by nanostructure surface texturing used for flapping wings. Moreover, same nanostructures act as antireflective layer due to improved light trapping for solar cell. The reflectivity of the nanotextured surface reduces to ~2%.