Back to the current year Winners
2022, December
Cupcakes on a plate
Ekin Kizilkan, AQUA
Cups are made of indium parts that stick to the photoresist walls. They are filled with further indium in a highly non-uniform way to serve different tastes. Grab the one you like from the gold plate before they are finished!
2022, November
Micro-leaves
Chengli Wang, Zihan Li, LPQM
The Zeiss LEO captures micro-leaves falling on a surface of a lake. Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go! After a long-time dry etching on the C-surface of 4H-silicon carbide, micro-leaves appear, originating from the hexagonal crystal structure of 4H-SiC.
2022, October
It’s getting frosty!
Wojciech Szmyt, LPMAT
Thin epitaxial films of BaTiO3 grown by high-vacuum chemical vapor deposition under sub-optimal conditions show a beautiful pattern of crystallites on the surface. This picture reminds us that indeed, winter is coming!
2022, September
Nano cheese plate
Xinru Ji, LPQM
After dry etching, the small oxide bricks take on the appearance of cheese; more specifically, Emmental.
2022, August
Micro-Baking Workshop
Sylvain El-Khoury, SENSIRION AG
Following the trendy topic of MEMS-cooking, we are proud to present here our version of the famous Linzertorte. Sadly, we couldn’t get our hands on the traditional nano-raspberry jam due to the current supply chain crisis. Still, we proceeded with patterning the negative photoresist “tagliatelle” on-top of the empty silicon trenches. Finally, we sprinkled a thin metal layer on top to give it that crisp look we all love. Cleave yourself a piece of cake and Guten Appetit!
2022, July
Micromushroom
Nicolas Maïno, LMIS4
What are chill and controlled humidity good for? Microfabrication? Not only! If you are lucky enough, and under class 3 environment minimum, you may encounter the coveted micromushroom. Its sturdy quartz stalk is crowned with a delicate flower-like platinum cap. Be aware that this work of art sells for a whopping price on the micromushroom market.
2022, June
Nano-Chocolate Bar Unwrapped
Hernán Furci, LMIS1
We demonstrate here a fabrication of Swiss nano-chocolate by combining sputtering, e-beam, photolithography, and dry etching. However, do not leave the nano-chocolate bar unattended even for five minutes on a sapphire wafer… A micro-demon will come and tear apart the wrapping film! Each chocolate square has a 600-nm side and is separated from the next by a 70-nm deep cut-line of variable width (around 50 nm). The whole chocolate bar has a thickness of only 100 nm! You know, good things are better when appreciated in small quantities. Disclaimer: For environmental reasons in our next release we would like to eliminate the wrapping film.
2022, May
Nanomechanical membrane in a curved spacetime
Alberto Beccari, LPQM
In order realize a nanomechanical resonator with low dissipation, we patterned a regular lattice of Silicon nanopillars on a 10 nanometer-thick Silicon Nitride membrane. This fragile sample was punctured during an experiment, folding and curling under its internal stress into an interesting shape.
2022, April
Atomic Layer Deposition
Giuliano Parma, AQUA
A nano mushroom cloud at CMI. This silicon structure is the result of a passivation impurity masking effect when “falling” at the bottom of a trench during the last few Deep Reactive Ion Etching cycles. All the surface is coated with 30 nm of TiN deposited using Atomic Layer Deposition.
2022, March
Bridge over the Shinano River
Viacheslav Snigirev, LPQM
This is an Al airbridge connecting elements of Nb microwave circuitry on a 4’’ SiO2 wafer.
2022, February
True 3D fabrication
Niyazi Ulas Dinç, LO,LAPD
This micro-scale slanted volume grating shows the 3D fabrication capability by two-photon polymerization. The refractive index inside the whole volume follows the topographical changes on the boundaries.
2022, January
Aluminium Manta Ray
Reuben Puddy, Oxford Ionics
An aluminium manta ray tries to swim away having been released from it’s SiO2 moorings but for now it remains trapped on Cu columns.