Cicada Wings: A Stamp from Nature for Nanoimprint Lithography

Winging it: The natural micro- and nanostructures that exist on the wings of cicadas (see image) are used as a new type of nanoimprinting lithography (NIL) stamp. NIL is used to fabricate nanowell arrays and the structures are transferred to a silicon substrate by reactive ion etching. Patterned PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) is also used as a mold to fabricate hexagonal gold pillar arrays that mimick structures on cicada wings. This work demonstrates the use of natural nanostructures as a much cheaper NIL method as cicada wings are abundant and easy to obtain.