If you’re hoping to design one of the world’s most precise microchip sensors, look to a spider’s web for inspiration.
That’s precisely what a team of researchers at the Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) did.
Why a spiderweb? Delft’s Richard Norte explained, “I’ve been doing this work already for a decade when during lockdown, I noticed a lot of spiderweb on my terrace. I realized spiderwebs are really good vibration detectors, in that they want to measure vibrations inside the web to find their prey, but not outside of it, like wind through a tree. So why not hitchhike on millions of years of evolution and use a spiderweb as an initial model for an ultra-sensitive device?”
How do you go about simulating a spiderweb? Combine nature with technology, said fellow Delft researcher Miguel Bessa. According to Bessa, the team used an algorithm called Bayesian optimization to rapidly uncover a good design. Dongil Shin, co-first author in this work, implemented the computer model and applied the machine learning algorithm to find the new device design.
Looking at 150 different designs, the algorithm proposed a relatively simple spiderweb consisting of only six strings put together in a deceivingly simple way. Computer simulations showed that the device based on this design could work at room temperature, in which atoms vibrate a lot, but still have an incredibly low amount of energy leaking in from the environment.
Co-first author Andrea Cupertino used the spiderweb design to build a microchip sensor with an ultra-thin, nanometer-thick film of ceramic material called Silicon Nitride. The microchip ‘web’ was tested by forcefully vibrating it and measuring the time it takes for the vibrations to stop.
The result? Spectacular: a record-breaking isolated vibration at room temperature. Norte commented, “We found almost no energy loss outside of our microchip web; the vibrations move in a circle on the inside and don’t touch the outside. This is somewhat like giving someone a single push on a swing, and having them swing on for nearly a century without stopping.”
The researchers noted that their design has “interesting” implications for quantum internet, sensing, microchip technologies, and fundamental physics.
Thanks, Mother Nature.