  Insect-inspired capillary submicron stamping and subsequent surface-limited
metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) with ammonium bifluoride as HF source is
employed for high-throughput production of ordered topographically patterned
silicon (tpSi). Insect feet often possess hairy contact elements through which
adhesive secretion is deployed. Thus, arrays of adhesive secretion drops remain
as footprints on contact surfaces. Stamps for insect-inspired capillary
submicron stamping having surfaces topographically patterned with contact
elements mimic the functional principles of such insect feet. They contain
spongy continuous nanopore networks penetrating the entire stamps. Any ink
(organic, aqueous) may be supplied from the backside of the nanoporous stamps
to the contact elements. We generated ordered arrays of AgNO3 dots extending
mm^2 on Si by manual stamping with cycle times of a few seconds under ambient
conditions; at higher load ordered holey AgNO3 films were obtained.
Surface-limited MACE correspondingly yielded either macroporous tpSi or Si
pillar arrays. Inkjet printing of polymer solutions onto tpSi yielded patterns
of polymer blots conformally covering the tpSi. Such blot patterns could
potentially represent a starting point for the development of persistent and
scratch-resistant identity labels or QR codes on silicon surfaces.
