To see more pictures, click: Honorable Runner-ups Pictures Gallery
2024, December
Now accepting submissions for November contest. Deadline for submission is Monday, January 13, 2025, at midnight. Rules for submission.
2024, November
Soul Bossa Nova
Luciano Calcoen, MT-MA1
We are bringing the sixties back to CMi. After an annealing of 600°C for 2min, the surface of 15nm of TiN over 10nm of TiO2 became granular all over. This picture was taken with one of CMi’s optical microscopes.
2024, October
The Golden Treasure
Wenhong Yang, BIOS
After IBE and RIE etching, we uncovered a remarkable treasure at CMi – numerous golden rings scattered across the silicon-based nanoholes! This image was captured using a Zeiss SEM Crossbeam.
2024, September
Water under the bridge
Gaël Sprüngli, HQC
Live recreation of the Tacoma bridge incident. Aluminum airbridges on niobium substrate.
2024, August
Nano-Brownies
Önder Soydal, POWERLAB
We are inviting you to a delicious journey to a nano-realm that you cannot possibly resist. Here are the multi-layer already sliced brownies offered to you on a golden tray. Be careful, they are just pulled out from a hot remover.
2024, July
Titanic
Javier Carrasco, Archi Gupta, Deeksha Gupta, QNET
Amidst the edge of the nanoworld, we discovered “the Titanic“ marooned in the Lithium Niobate “frost,” adrift atop the Silicon Oxide “ocean.“ We were intrigued and captivated by this image, which we consider to be a work of art worthy of sharing with the community. On a technical note, this was achieved by cleaving our LNOI chip and examining the region near the puncture site during cross-sectional imaging.
2024, June
Microscopic Marvel: The Silicon-Aluminum Butterfly
Melania Coronese, BCI
Witness a marvel of modern nanotechnology: a butterfly with a silicon body and aluminum wings, each just 4 µm thick. This delicate structure was fabricated starting from a silicon wafer through a process that involved etching away a sacrificial parylene layer, allowing the butterfly to be released. Amazingly, once freed, the wings folded elegantly on their own, driven by the release of accumulated stress. This little masterpiece showcases the breathtaking possibilities of materials science and the ingenuity of modern engineering.
2024, May
Honeycomb
Buse Ünlü, LAPD
“The bees of CMi are working with great dedication and passion, meticulously constructing their adorable honeycombs.” This structure is printed spot-by-spot and layer-by-layer through the 2-photon polymerization by our custom-built 2-photon 3D printer.
2024, April
Abandoned Fortress
Jongeon Park, LMIS1
After exploration in the micro world, an abandoned fortress was discovered in the middle of the lake by a microengineer. The fortress is composed of CaO and the lake is composed of PVA.
2024, March
Polymer mini-mallows
Mehdi Ali Gadiri, Junsun Hwang, MICROBS
In a delightful twist, mini-marshmallows, skewered on a slender polymer rod, rotate slowly over a flame that flickers to life on the left — a minuscule oven toasting them to a scrumptious golden-brown as they revolve in a dance of heat and sweetness.
2024, February
For You a (Micro)Rose
Shelly Ben-David, LMSC
February is the month of love, and for you, CMi, I want to give a µ-rose. This is a beautiful mistake that resulted from contamination on my DP650-sputtered germanium tin thin film. Thank you to CMi for all that you do!
2024, January
Solid state tide
Peter Warnicke, LSPR
There are rough waves in the silicon canal today. Better to navigate with caution. A thin silicon nitride membrane supported by a silicon frame forms corrugations that, when viewed with an optical microscope, look like periodic waves.
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