Back to the current year Winners
2023, December
VO2 bacteria
Anna Varini, Nanolab
Something is about to happen inside. Are we looking at the chromosome creation inside single cell? Sounds exciting, but no, this is just a beautiful defect on nano crystalline thin film of VO2 that looks like a single cell bacteria floating in the sea of algae.
2023, November
Crazy lithium niobate vinyl record
Rui Ning Wang, Luxtelligence
Don’t you sometimes wish for some music when working in the cleanroom? Well, I have just the right solution for you: Presenting the lithium niobate micro vinyl records! On this one, the music was so wild that the tracks fell off.
2023, October
Crystal chrysanthemum
Zihan Li, LPQM
“There is no rain cover when the lotus is gone, and there are still proud frost branches of the chrysanthemums.” – Su Shi (1037-1101). Lithium niobate chips were immersed in salts. The reaction between salts congealed crystalline chrysanthemum on the surface.
2023, September
A Photoresist Eye
Saba Gholizadeh, NEMS
I am currently fabricating cap wafers to be bonded to SMR (suspended microchannel resonators) wafers, so I was doing the SiO2 etching with SPTS APS in Zone 2 and afterwards I realized there were bubbles of resist (AZ 10XT 60) from the previous step (resist hardening) on the edges of my patterns and when checking under the optical microscope I found this.
2023, August
Carving microcrater in a spark
Dorian Herle, Daniel Moreno, NEMS
In a microcosmic spectacle, an over-voltage surge on aSi HF vapor-released MEMS membranes sparks a dielectric tempest. Swirling hues of reds, oranges, and purples radiate outward, culminating in a fiery microcrater amidst its terrain.
2023, July
An earthquake in CMi
Yara Abdelaal, NEMS
It was reported that tremor has caused the collapse of the facility’s well-known flooring. The presence of reinforcing silicon pillars did not prevent the destruction of our suspended silicon nitride membrane during a wet etching step. With the help of the Zeiss SEM Crossbeam we were still at least able to capture the beauty in the ruins.
2023, June
Nano-dessert
Damien Maillard, NEMS
One of the world’s best kept secrets is what the CMi kitchen will offer in the next research day… Using the newly acquired Zeiss SEM Crossbeam, we have been able to shed some light on this mystery, and it seems that nanoscale strawberry cupcakes will be on the menu next year! This picture was taken at 100 kX magnification and shows Aluminum nitride clusters partially attacked after KOH wet etch.
2023, May
Micro bee house
Jongeon Park, LMIS1
Micro-size honeycomb structure for the tiny bees. Thermal imprinting of tri-glycerides using PVA mold. Sputtered with 2nm gold. The image was taken by SEM Merlin.
2023, April
Micro evil eyes
Amirali Arabmoheghi, LPQM1
The ritual began by digging holes in silicon substrate. Silicon nitride was then deposited and we planarized meticulously. With a splash of HF the remaining layer of Silicon nitride was removed. We put forward the specimen before the wise wizard, Merlin. It was then when he opened our eyes to the micro evil eyes.
2023, March
VO2 3D puzzle of dark side of the Moon
Anna Varini, Nanolab
Different defects can be found on VO2 film grown with PLD. In this picture you can see one of them – a moonlike perfectly round defect that reminds me of a 3D puzzle.
2023, February
Ultra-sharp pencil
Stefano Marinoni, LMSC
This micro-pencil was obtained by a two-step grayscale lithography process, where a 3D-patterned resist is conformally transferred into a silicon hardmask and then amplified into a GaN substrate by reactive ion etching. The image was take at the SEM Zeiss Leo.
2023, January
Cells fighting for space
Roberto Russo, LMIS1
As they grow these cells are bumping on each other fighting to occupy the larger possible space. Which one will survive the fight? Overexposed IBE etched gold-coated superconducting YBaCuO sample.