Title:
This Microchip With Wings Is The Smallest Flying Structure Humans Have Ever Built
Author:
Conor Feehly
Published:
ScienceAlert, 23 September 2021
From the article:
Inspired by the way trees like maples disperse their seeds using little more than a stiff breeze, researchers developed a range of tiny flying microchips, the smallest one hardly bigger than a grain of sand.
This flying microchip or 'microflier' catches wind and spins like a helicopter towards the ground.
The microfliers, designed by a team at Northwestern University in Illinois, can be packed with ultra-miniaturized technology, including sensors, power sources, antennas for wireless communication, and even embedded memory for data storage.