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The 54th International Conference on
Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology
and Nanofabrication

Bizarre/Beautiful
Micrograph Contest

“ A good Micrograph is worth more than the MegaByte it consumes.”

Entries Presented by Dr. John Randall

The rules include the following:
• Entries have to be of a single image taken with a microscope and could not be significantly altered.
• There is no restriction with respect to the subject matter.
• Electron and ion micrographs have to be black and white.

In 2010, 88 entries were submitted. There were many outstanding micrographs. The work represented in the submitted micrographs covered a wide range of fields including micro mechanical, photonic, and integrated circuit fabrication, chemical and dry etching, carbon nanotube structures,  carbon nanotube growth experiments,  biological samples, material science experiments and, of course, e-beam, ion beam, and photo lithography experiments.

The panel of judges who selected the award winners were:

Don Tennant – Cornell
Edgar Mitchell – Apollo 14 Astronaut
Cindy Hanson – SPAWAR

There were six awards:
• Grand Prize
• Most Bizzare
• Best Photon Micrograph
• Best Ion Micrograph
• Best  Electron Micrograph
• Best Video

There were 17 Honorable Mentions.

All 2010 Entries (with original titles)

Judges exercised their prerogative to liberally interpret the award categories, change the micrograph titles, and even rotate the micrograph if it pleased them.


BEST ELECTRON MICROGRAPH

eipbn2010-entries be-2010

Title: Alaskan Oasis

Description:Au electroplated structures in defective PMMA mold

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 20 kx

Instrument (Make and Model): SEM Zeiss Supra 55VP

Submitted by: Joan Vila-Comamala

Affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institut (Switzerland)


BEST ION MICROGRAPH

bi-2010

Title: I think it’s down here.

Description:These are the several of the small hairs that are found on the wing of a bee. The scaly nature of the membrane is also seen. Also, several of the hairs show a defect suspected to be a parasite egg.

Magnification (3″x4″ image):  2.4kX

Instrument: Carl Zeiss, ORION Plus   (He Ion Microscope)

Submitted by: Shawn McVey and Dave Voci

Affiliation: Carl Zeiss SMT


BEST PHOTON MICROGRAPH

bp-2010

Title: Off Road

Description:This is a bright field optical micrograph of poly(styrene-block-ferrocenyldimethylsilane) (PS-b-PFS) block copolymer thin film. The polymer was spin coated on a thin TEM membrane subjected to hybrid thermal/solvent annealing. This artistic structure appears due to the selective dewetting of the polymer from the thin TEM window (seen in the middle) which oscillates during the spin coating.

Magnification: 100X

Instrument: Zeiss optical microscope

Submitted by: Muruganathan Ramanathan and Seth Darling

Affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory


BEST VIDEO MICROGRAPH

Dangerous_Drive

Title: Out of Control California Roll

Description:The DIC stack of a hexagonal array of PDMS pillars with magnetic tips. As magnetic tweezer gets close, pillars adhere to each other.

Magnification (3″x4″ image):

Instrument (Make and Model):  CCD camera with 40X objective

Submitted by: Saba Ghassemi

Affiliation: Columbia University


MOST BIZARRE MICROGRAPH

mb-2010

Title: Bat Man

Description:Unknown source of contamination on silicon wafer after PMMA resist strip.

Magnification (3″x4″ image):  70x

Instrument (Make and Model): Zeiss Ultra55

Submitted by: Steven Hickman

Affiliation: Cornell University


GRAND PRIZE

gp-2010

Title: Too Many Eggs for One Basket

Description: Poly(lactic acid) microspheres formed by a W/O/W emulsion and a three leaf clover blade.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 1000X

instrument (Make and Model): FEI Sirion XL30

Submitted by: Scott Braswell

Affiliation: University of Washington – NTUF


HONORABLE MENTION

hm1-2010

Title: Icelandic Nightmare

Description: Talbot lithography using 1x full field mask aligner with 100 µm exposure gap

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 7260x

Instrument (Make and Model): ZEISS Ultra Plus

Submitted by: Michael Hornung & Uwe Vogler

Affiliation: SUSS MicroTec


HONORABLE MENTION

hm2-2010

Title: Princess and the Pea

Description: Inverse opal photonic crystal bending over some particles

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 2500X

Instrument (Make and Model):  Hitachi S4800 FESEM

Submitted by: Leo Tom Varghese, Li Fan

Affiliation: Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University


HONORABLE MENTION

hm3-2010

Title: The White Cliffs of Silica

Description: Side view of self assembled silica particles showing 100 crystal orientation

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 3000X

Instrument (Make and Model):  Hitachi S4800 FESEM

Submitted by: Leo Tom Varghese, Li Fan

Affiliation: Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University


HONORABLE MENTION

hm4-2010

Title: ET Phone Home

Description: SEM picture of a DNA fork fomed on PDMS after evaporation of a DNA solution containing Triton

Magnification (3″x4″ image):  X2000

Instrument (Make and Model): SEM Hitachi 4000

Submitted by: J. Cordeiro

Affiliation: BioColloNa LTM CNRS


HONORABLE MENTION

hm5-2010

Title: Your Brain on Politics

Description: This is a bright field optical micrograph of poly(styrene-block-ferrocenyldimethylsilane) (PS-b-PFS) block copolymer thin film. Polymer film thickness and the mode of annealing brings out a variety of structures which is currently being explored as an etch mask for mesoscale lithography.

Magnification: 100X

Instrument: Zeiss optical microscope (cross-polarization mode)

Submitted by: Muruganathan Ramanathan and Seth Darling

Affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory


HONORABLE MENTION

hm6-2010

Title: Under the bleachers

Description: Funny bottom structures revealed beneath the upper layer after it was etched out.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 16kx

Instrument (JEO L JSM-6700)

Submitted by: Yehiel Gotkis & Alan Brodie

Affiliation: KLA-Tencor


HONORABLE MENTION

hm7-2010

Title: REALLY short stack

Description: Platelets observed stacked up inside a blood vessel in a section of bone

Magnification (3″x4″ image):  10kX

Instrument (Make and Model):

Submitted by: Larry Scipioni

Affiliation: Carl Zeiss SMT, Inc.


HONORABLE MENTION

hm8-2010

Title: Let’s get rid of it

Description: Top-down view of a carbon-nanotube micro-pillar after failure at ~1 GPa stress.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 45000X

Instrument (Make and Model):   Hitachi S4800 SEM

Submitted by: Siddhartha Pathak and William M. Mook

Affiliation: EMPA, Switzerland


HONORABLE MENTION

hm9-2010

Title: New micro asteroid

Description: Scouring the surface of our silicon world we detect an unknown asteroid

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 1789X

Instrument (Make and Model): FEI Quanta 3D FEG

Submitted by: V.G. Kutchoukov and P. Kruit

Affiliation: Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands


HONORABLE MENTION

hm10-2010

Title: Madonna Picasso

Description: A failed pattern transfer of MIM stacks from a grating mold onto a PMMA- coated glass substrate.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 124x

Instrument (Make and Model): Instrument (Make and Model): Philips XL30 FEG SEM

Submitted by: Alex Kaplan

Affiliation: University of Michigan


HONORABLE MENTION

hm11-2010

Title: Belching Trash Cans

Description: Selective etching of GaAs/AlGaAs stacks on the GaAs substrate with hard mask residue

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 13KX

Instrument (Make and Model):  Philips XL30 FEG

Submitted by: Yi-Kuei Wu

Affiliation: EECS, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor


HONORABLE MENTION

hm12-2010

Title: “chrysanthemum”

Description:SEM image of a chrysanthemum self-assembled from electron-beam-lithography-defined PMMA nanopillars due to the capillary force during the post-development rinse and drying process. The original thickness of PMMA was ~550 nm, and PMMA was used as a negative resist. Electron-beam lithography was done by Raith 150 with an accelerating voltage of 30 kV, beam current of ~400 pA.

Magnification (5.18″x 6″ image):  75,000x

Instrument (Make and Model): Raith 150

Submitted by: Huigao Duan

Affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology


HONORABLE MENTION

hm13-2010

Title: Contratulations, it’s a boy

Description:These two whole cells had their micro villi entangled as if hugging.

Magnification (3″x4″ image):  4.6 kX

Instrument (Make and Model):   ORION Plus He Ion Microscope

Submitted by: Shawn McVey and Dave Voci

Affiliation: Carl Zeiss SMT


HONORABLE MENTION

hm14-2010

Title: Octopuses Garden

Description: This is the membrane of a mouse cell with the micro-villi reaching up – just as snakes rise for the music of the serpent charmer.

Magnification (3″x4″ image):  23 kX

Instrument (Make and Model):   ORION Plus He Ion Microscope

Submitted by: Shawn McVey and Dave Voci

Affiliation: Carl Zeiss SMT


HONORABLE MENTION

hm15-2010

Title: Snow Flakes

Description:The planar nature of the crystal formation process is plainly visible here.

Magnification (3″x4″ image):  17kX

Instrument: Carl Zeiss, ORION Plus   (He Ion Microscope)

Submitted by: Lou Farkas and Dave Voci

Affiliation: Carl Zeiss SMT


HONORABLE MENTION

hm16-2010

Title: I can see my house from here

Description:FIB image (Focused Ion Beam, Ga+) that shows a RIE (Reactive Ion Etching) result of an attack over an organic resist.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 600 x

Instrument (Make and Model): CrossBeam 1560xB (Carl Zeiss)

Submitted by: Jordi Llobet1 & Aïda Varea2

Affiliation: 1IMB-CNM (CSIC) & 2 UAB – Barcelona


HONORABLE MENTION

hm17-2010

Title: Don’t Jump!

Description:Rod of cobalt overhanging a larger silicon rod, with the “shell” formed by cobalt chloride.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 600 x

Magnification (3″x4″ image):  29000x

Instrument (Make and Model): Zeiss Ultra55

Submitted by: Steven Hickman

Affiliation: Cornell University