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The 60th International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication

22nd 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 2016, 78 entries were submitted. Including:
• 60 Electron Micrographs (SEM and TEM)
• 8 Ion Micrographs
• 9 Photon (optical) Micrographs
• 1 Scanning Probe Micrograph

The entries came from: US, Italy, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, UK, Switzerland.

• Shida Tan – Intel
• Deirdre Olynick – Molecular Foundry
• Liz Dobisz– Spin Transfer Technologies

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

There were seven awards:
• Grand Prize
• Best Ion Micrograph
• Most Bizarre
• 3 Beamer’s Choice
• Best Electron Micrograph
• Best Scanning Probe Micrograph
• Most Realistic Micrograph

There were 6 Honorable Mentions also given.

All 2016 Entries (with original titles)


BEST ELECTRON MICROGRAPH

Title: Yinz’s micro crabs

Description: Micro crabs on their way to the beach.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 15KX

Instrument: FEI XL 30s SEM

Submitted by: Si Wang

Affiliation: University of Wuppertal


BEST ION PRIZE

Title:Rigid

Description: Gold-capped carbonized nano-pillars surrounded by carbon nanotubes prepared by a combination of 2-photon direct laser write and a thermal anneal.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 8.725KX 

Instrument: FEI Novalab 600 Dual-Beam

Submitted by: Ivan Kravchenko

Affiliation: Center for Nanophase Materials Science, Oak Ridge National Laboratory


3 BEAMER’S CHOICE AWARD

Title: Octopus Tooth Fairy

Description: Imprinted SU-8 exposed by an excimer lamp with wavelength of 172 nm.

Magnification: (3″ x 4″ image): 4.8KX   

Instrument: FEI XL 30S

Submitted by: Christian Steinberg and Si Wang

Affiliation: University of Wuppertal


MOST REALISTIC MICROGRAPH

Title: White Christmas

Description: Electrical breakdown during electrochemical etching.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 9KX

Instrument: LEO FESEM 1530  

Submitted by: Ferhat Aydinoglu

Affiliation: University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada)


MOST BIZARRE MICROGRAPH

Title: Octopus Tooth Fairy

Description: Imprinted SU-8 exposed by an excimer lamp with wavelength of 172 nm.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 4.8KX

Instrument: FEI XL 30S

Submitted by: Christian Steinberg and Si Wang

Affiliation: University of Wuppertal


BEST SCANNING PROBE MICROGRAPH

Title: Your Brain on Grass???

Description: 3-d height AFM image of cellulose nanofibrils (Forest Products Laboratory) deposited on mica. This nanofibrillated material has aggregated to mimic the neural pathways of the human brain.

Magnification (3″x 4″ image): 48KX

Instrument: Veeco Multimode SPM

Submitted by: Philip Fournier

Affiliation: University of Pittsburgh Star Research Group


GRAND PRIZE

Title: Celestial

Description: Wrinkled PMMA film on silicon substrate. Differential Interference Contrast Mode.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 36X (5X obj)

Instrument: Olympus MX61

Submitted by: Devin Brown

Affiliation: Georgia Tech


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: KitKat on wrapper

Description: A piece of silicon with several zone plates on top of it (Zone plate brand KitKat).

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 83X

Instrument: FIB FEI Nova 600 NanoLab

Submitted by: Kenan Li

Affiliation: Northwestern University


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Feed Me

Description: Carbonization of gold capped pillars photo-polymerized using 2-photon direct laser write.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 9.508KX

Instrument: FEI Novalab 600 Dual-Beam

Submitted by: Ivan Kravchenko

Affiliation: Center for Nanophase Materials Science, Oak Ridge National Laboratory


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Einstein’s Atoms

Description:Particle which get shifted during cool of a thermal imprint process due to different coefficients of thermal expansion between the Si-substrate and the polymeric stamp.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 10KX

Instrument: FEI/Philips XL 30S FEG

Submitted by: Marc Papenheim

Affiliation: University of Wuppertal


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Take out boxes

Description: After development of two layers system positive photoresists via optical lithography.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 11KX

Instrument: FEI XL 30S

Submitted by: Si Wang

Affiliation: University of Wuppertal


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Group Hug

Description: These creepy spiders are coming from collapsed of SU8 pillars following a drastic heating before IPA rinsing solvent completely dried.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 600X 

Instrument: Hitachi S-4800

Submitted by: Angelo Accardo

Affiliation: LAAS-CNRS, France


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Crab in-utero

Description: A German folk tale tells from sirne, which is sitting on the cliff above the Rhine and combing her golden hair, unwittingly distracted shipmen with her beauty and song, causing them to crash on the rocks.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 6KX 

Instrument: FEI XL 30S SEM

Submitted by: Andre Mayer

Affiliation: University of Wuppertal