One was to develop wings with leading edge lift five times better than that of fixed wing aircraft. The Cal Tech group invented a new micro-fabricated titanium alloy covered with a fabric of parylene weighing about 170 mg. Microbat's other internal systems are an electric motor, transmission, fuselage, tail, battery and electronics and brought the total weight to 10.6 grams. The Microbat took the 10-man team 18 months to produce. As with most research projects funding is a constant irritant.
Budgets never seem to allow the luxury of nice new equipment and the staff to use it.
The workaround is typically a mixture of creative midnight requisitioning from other projects and departments. In the case of Cal Tech's NEMS group, old and outdated semiconductor manufacturing systems provided micro magic while motors, batteries and such were converted from other uses. The flapping wings must be controlled at many places on the wing surface membranes by electrostatic micro-activators so the flow of air across the surface can be constantly adjusted to flight conditions. The actuators are fabricated in much the same fashion as semiconductors, depositing different layers of materials on the laminate fabric. The thrust generated by the flapping wings depends on the flexibility, location and timing of the actuators.