←2013

2015→

20th EIPBN Bizarre/Beautiful
Micrograph Contest

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

Entries Presented by Dr. John Randall – Zyvex Labs

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 2014, 79 entries were submitted. Including:
• 60 Electron Micrographs (SEM and TEM)
• 11 Ion Micrographs
• 5 Photon (optical) Micrographs
• 2 Video Micrographs
• 1 Scanning Probe Micrograph

The entries came from: US, Switzerland, Canada, Hungary, Germany, India, France, and Japan.

The panel of judges who selected the award winners were:

Prof. Theresa Maldonado – Division Director, Engineering Education and Centers; Engineering Directorate National Science Foundation; Assoc. Vice Chancellor for Research Texas A&M University System
Cindy Daniell PhD – SRI International Director, Program Development, Physical Sciences Division; Chief Scientist in the Explosives Division of the HSARPA; Program Manager DSO DARPA
Larry Millstein PhD JD -Partner at Millen, White, Zelano & Branigan PC; President Philosophical Society of Washington; Adjunct Prof.; Biochem., Molec. & Cell. Bio. Georgetown University; President Foresight Institute

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

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

There were 7 Honorable Mentions and a special Honorable Mention for Highest Resolution.

All 2014 Entries (with original titles)


BEST ELECTRON MICROGRAPH

Title: Moonstruck on the Beach

Description: Imprint into PS by stamp with about 500 nm ( lateral and vertical ) pyramidal structures etched via black Si process

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 2.5KX

Instrument (Make and Model): FEI XL 30S SEM

Submitted by: Si Wang

Affiliation: University of Wuppertal


BEST PHOTON PRIZE

Title: gg – golden galaxy

Description: A gold etching experiment went wrong, but ended up just being beautiful.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 42X

Instrument: NIKON LV 150

Submitted by: Lukas Häusler

Affiliation: PROFACTOR GmbH


BEST ION MICROGRAPH

Title: Rear Window

Description: Using a gallium beam in conjunction with an etchant gas (XeF2) two holes penetrate through silicon to view the patterned metal layers below.

Magnification (4″ x 5″ image): 1.27 kX  

Instrument: Zeiss NanoFab (He, Ne, Ga) 

Submitted by: John Notte & Deying Xia

Affiliation: Carl Zeiss Microscopy, LLC


MOST BIZARRE MICROGRAPH

Title: The Short and Curly of it All

Description: A spring-like structure formed by an aligned bundle of carbon nanotubes.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 1.55KX

Instrument: Zeiss Sigma VP  

Submitted by: Mike Chang, Alireza Nojeh

Affiliation: Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia


BEST VIDEO MICROGRAPH

HM7-2014

Title: Continental Drift

Description: Accelerated video showing the result of an extremely high, localized dose of helium into a silicon wafer, covered with a zirconium dioxide crust.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 333KX

Instrument: Zeiss Orion HIM

Submitted by: John Notte, Shawn McVey, Sybren Sijbrandij

Affiliation: Carl Zeiss Microscopy, LLC


GRAND PRIZE

Title: Tessellation as a Noun

Description: Underdosed hatch-ing structures in 2-photon polymeri-zation undergone shrinkage and collapse

Magnification (3″x4″ image):15KX

Instrument: ZEISS Supra 55 VP

Submitted by: Robert Kirchner

Affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland


SPECIAL HONORABLE MENTION (BEST RESOLUTION)

Title: Nano Runes

Description: Celtic Knotwork drawn using STM Lithography from a 500 x 500 pixel bitmap. 1 px = 7.68 Å

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 350 kX

Instrument: Zyvex Labs STM

Submitted by: James H.G. Owen

Affiliation: Zyvex Labs


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Croissant Under Vacuum (AKA Getting OLD)

Description: SEM image of a chitin coated alginate microparticle following dehydration.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 350X

Instrument: (FEI Quanta series )

Submitted by: Bryan Kaehr

Affiliation: Sandia National Laboratories


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Innie and Outtie Ravioli

Description: SEM image of yeast cells confined in microfabricated hydrogel structures bulging out the roof of their house following cell proliferation.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 350X

Instrument: FEI Quanta series

Submitted by: Bryan Kaehr

Affiliation: Sandia National Laboratories


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Thor’s Garden

Description: Carbon atoms which are escaped from the tips of the carbon nanotube emitters grow a tree on the anode surface during the field emission.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 5,000X

Instrument: FESEM JEOL 7401F

Submitted by: Hai Hoang Van

Affiliation: Florida State University


HONORABLE MENTION

 

Title: Rocky Mountain High

Description: SEM image of a single silicon needle of a microelectrode array with debris (clouds).

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 800 X 

Instrument (Make and Model): Hitachi S-4700 SEM

Submitted by: Josh Ballard & Bill Owen

Affiliation: Zyvex Labs


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Pac Man ate a Butterfly or Shamrock Sonogram

Description: Coherent-EUV Shadowgraph of pyramid structure

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 4.5kX 

Instrument (Make and Model): EUV Micro-CSM

Submitted by: Tetsuo Harada

Affiliation: Univ. of Hyogo


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: ET and Avatar Offspring or Shrooms Man?

Description: Making of truncated silicon cones using a SiO2 hard mask

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 1KX 

Instrument (Make and Model): Zeiss Ultra 60

Submitted by: Mathias Irmscher

Affiliation: IMS Chips


HONORABLE MENTION

HM7-2014

Title: Shuttlecock Evolution

Description: Holographic two-photon polymerization of a microstructure composed of nested dodecahedron frames (circumscribed sphere radius: 10.5 µm) is visible in IPL photoresist.

Magnification (3″x4″ image): 100X

Instrument (Make and Model): Zeiss Axiovert 40

Submitted by: Gaszton Vizsnyiczai

Affiliation: EBiological Research Centre, Hungarian Academy of Sciences