3D rendered image showing a heated nanoscale silicon tip,
borrowed from atomic force microscopy that is chiselling away
material from a substrate to create a nanoscale 3D map of the
world. As reported in the scientific journal Advanced Materials,
IBM Researchers used this new nanopatterning technique to create
the smallest map of the world in 3D, measuring only 22 by 11
micrometers was 'written' – on a polymer - at this size 1000 world
maps could fit on a grain of salt. In the relief, one thousand
meters of altitude correspond to roughly eight nanometers (nm). It
is composed of 500,000 pixels, each measuring 20 nm2 and was
created in only 2 minutes and 23 seconds. (Image courtesy of
Advanced Materials).
Zurich & San Jose, CA - scientists at IBM
have developed a 3D map of the earth, so small that 1,000 of them
could fit on one grain of salt, the company claims. This
interesting development was accomplished through a new,
breakthrough technique that uses a tiny, silicon tip with a sharp
apex -- 100,000 times smaller than a sharpened pencil -- to build
patterns and structures as small as 15 nanometers at greatly
reduced cost and complexity. According to IBM, this patterning
technique opens new prospects for developing nanosized objects in
such fields as medicine, life sciences, electronics, future chip
technology and optoelectronics. [See Video Below]
29 April 2010