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The 59th International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication

21st 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 2015, 118 entries were submitted. Including:
• 88 Electron Micrographs (SEM and TEM)
• 20 Ion Micrographs
• 8 Photon (optical) Micrographs
• 1 Video Micrographs
• 1 Scanning Probe Micrograph

The entries came from: US, China, Canada, Germany, Austria, Hong Kong, UK, Switzerland.

The panel of judges who selected the award winners were:

Don Tennant – Operations Director of Cornell’s Infamous National Nanofabrication Facility. Originator of Tennant’s Law which has defined the trade-offs in Semiconductor lithography for the last two centuries. One of the oldest 3-Beamers still in captivity.
Dr. Deirdre Olynick – Staff Scientist, Molecular Foundry Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NanoFabrication guru, and soon to be MBA.
Judy Tennant -Long suffering spouse of Don Tennant. Veteran of many 3 Beams and Micrograph contests

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
Most Uplifting
Most Bizzare
3 Beamer’s Choice
Best Electron Micrograph
Best Photon Micrograph

There were 8 Honorable Mentions also given.

All 2015 Entries (with original titles)


BEST ELECTRON MICROGRAPH

Title: Le Fleur Triumph de Catastrophe

Description: Silicon nanowires etched from silicon wafer by metal assisted chemical etching. Center is gold dots that failed to lift off

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 3.5KX

Instrument: Hitachi S-4800 SEM

Submitted by: Kyle Jacobs

Affiliation: University of Illinois (Illinois, North America)


BEST PHOTON PRIZE

Title:Angry Little Spheriblobs

Description: Multilayers of SiO2 and SiN caused the underlying gold film to bubble up in a beautiful way.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): ~120X 

Instrument: Nikon Optiphot (DIC imaging)

Submitted by: Rick Bojko, Mark Brunson

Affiliation: Washington Nanofab Facility,U of Washington (Seattle,WA)


3 BEAMER’S CHOICE AWARD

Title: What you do when spring comes to land: Tulip garden

Description: Silicon nano pillars with metallic shells after RIE process

Magnification: (3″ x 4″ image): 20KX   

Instrument: Zeiss Ultra plus FESEM

Submitted by: Celal Con

Affiliation:University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Canada)


BEST aSPIREing MIRCROGRAPH

Title: “Herz-Jesu-Cathedral” Graz/Austria

Description: Miniature model of gothic cathedral “Herz-Jesu” in Graz/Austria

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 15KX

Instrument: FEI Fib Nova200  

Submitted by: Robert Winkler

Affiliation: Graz Centre for Electron Microscopy (Austria)


MOST BIZARRE MICROGRAPH

Title: Flying dragons crossing clouds

Description: Pulled up polystyrene during stamp removal

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 5KX

Instrument: FEI/Philips XL 30S FEG

Submitted by: Alexander Nöll

Affiliation: University of Wuppertal (Germany)


MOST UPLIFTING MICROGRAPH

Title: Ship Happens

Description: Line array and grating on sidewall of Silicon nanowire.

Magnification (3″x 4″ image): 10KX

Instrument: Zeiss Ultra plus FESEM

Submitted by: Celal Con

Affiliation: University of Waterloo (Waterloo,Canada)


GRAND PRIZE

Title: Judy’s Favorite

Description: Silver nano-ribbon assisted chemically etched silicon. Ribbed pillars are silicon, silver ribbons seen at bottom

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 20KX

Instrument: Hitachi S-4800 SEM

Submitted by: Kyle Jacobs

Affiliation: University of Illinois (Illinois, North America)


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: The Big Little Big Island

Description: 10 nm pores formed by electrochemical etching under different directions.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 13.23KX

Instrument: LEO FESEM 1530

Submitted by: Ferhat Aydinoglu

Affiliation: University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Canada)


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Than’Q very much!

Description: Sub-wavlength gold pillars made a deep bow during electroplating process.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 103KX

Instrument: ZEISS SIGAMA HD

Submitted by: Yaqi Ma

Affiliation: Fudan University (China)


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Graduates buried in the sand.

Description: Umbrellas, playing with electron shine!

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 11KX

Instrument: Leo FESEM 1530

Submitted by: Ripon Dey

Affiliation: University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Canada)


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Stairway to Heaven

Description: When resist developing, grating stands up like a ladder.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 59KX

Instrument: FEI-Sirion 200 SEM 

Submitted by: Jinhai Shao, Bingrui Lu

Affiliation: Fudan University (China)


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Wind in a Vacuum

Description: Poetic walk in the wind of Nano-land

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 10 KX 

Instrument: SEM – JEOL JSM7401F

Submitted by: Florian Delechat

Affiliation: University of Montreal (Montreal, QC, Canada)


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Schwetty Balls

Description: Staphylococcus aureus cells atop gold-doped nanoparticles.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 50KX 

Instrument: Hitachi S-4500

Submitted by: Jessica M. Andriolo

Affiliation: Montana Tech:U of M (Butte, MT, North America)


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Sitteth not on a frustum of a cone

Description: SiO2 coated Si tip supported by the frustum of a cone (85° tilt-view). The lighthouse or the candle floating on the water shows the way to our destination.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 35KX

Instrument: Zeiss SUPRA 60

Submitted by: Zhijun Huang

Affiliation: School of Physics and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University (China)


HONORABLE MENTION

Title: Shredded Snail Taco

Description: Entire nanofiberous cilia of the immature nerite snail are retained, shortened, and wrinkled by using an optional heat fixation step during SEM sample preparation.

Magnification: (3″x 4″ image): 3KX 

Instrument: FEI, Philips XL30 ESEM-FEG

Submitted by: Larry Millet

Affiliation: Oak Ridge National Lab (Oak Ridge, TN, North America)