Cornell Gives President Clinton the World's
Smallest Saxophone
Source: Cornell
University
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/July00/nanosax.ws.html
July 12, 2000
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the wake of the nanoguitar, now there are
287,900 nanosaxophones.
The tiny instrument images, carved on a silicon chip by engineers
at the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility, together form a centimeter-square
silhouette of President Bill Clinton playing his favorite musical instrument.
The unique chip, embedded in a lucite paperweight, will be presented to the
White House staff today (Wednesday, July 12) by Hunter Rawlings, president of
Cornell University.
"We are confident this is the smallest gift any president has ever
received," Rawlings said. He will present the memento to John Podesta, Clinton's
chief of staff, for inclusion in the Clinton presidential library.
Each of the tiny saxophone images is about 6-by-8 millionths of a
meter, or about the size of a red blood cell. Carved onto a chip made of blue
silicon nitride, they form the pixels of an image based on a photo of Clinton
taken at his 1993 inauguration as governor of Arkansas.
The nanosaxophone was made, Rawlings said, to illustrate the
Cornell Nanofabrication Facility's ability to manufacture the world's smallest
devices, used in biology, medicine, chemistry, electronics, optics and physics.
The images were produced by an advanced technique called electron beam
lithography, which can form objects about 10 times smaller than
photolithography, the method used to make most computer chips today.
Cornell nanofabricators attracted worldwide attention in 1997 when
a graduate student used similar techniques to carve a microscopic sculpture of a
guitar onto a silicon chip. Although done as a lark, the nanoguitar was a
dramatic demonstration of the potential of nanotechnology.
Rawlings will present the nanosaxophone as part of a daylong
series of events sponsored by the Science Coalition, a consortium of
universities and other research institutions formed to encourage continued
federal support for basic research.
The nanosaxophone chip was created by Cornell Nanofabrication
Facility staff members Richard Tiberio, Michael Skvarla, Karlis Musa and
Melanie-Claire Mallison, and undergraduate research intern Teresa Emery. The
paperweight in which it is mounted was crafted by the Design and Fabrication
Facility of the Cornell University College of Engineering. The project was
directed by Alton Clark, associate director of the Cornell Nanofabrication
Facility.
Related World Wide Web sites: The following sites provide
additional information on this news release. Some might not be part of the
Cornell University community, and Cornell has no control over their content or
availability.
-- Cornell Nanofabrication Facility:
-- The nanoguitar
story:
by Bill Steele
(607) 255-7164
ws21@cornell.edu
cunews@cornell.edu
http://www.news.cornell.edu
http://www.cnf.cornell.edu
http://www.news.cornell.edu/science/July97/guitar.ltb.html