10 micro devices are changing the world

From the world's smallest semiconductor laser to a bee-sized robot, many of them are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye, but they are actually changing change our world every day.

The maxim that good things often come from small things is more true than ever - true for devices that may be smaller than a smartphone or a 7-inch tablet. Is not! They are really much smaller.

And while some devices are small enough to make an impression, other devices can't even be seen with the naked eye. Thanks to the latest advances in nanotechnology, those seemingly tiny devices have a huge impact on our lives every day.

1 - Self-print battery for personal use

Tired of spending money every few days to replace batteries? Don't worry, researchers at Harvard University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have recently figured out how to help one day print your own batteries.

These physicists have created lithium-ion batteries about the size of a grain of salt by using a 3D printer to spray "conductive ink" into a glass substrate with gold conductor circuit. The anode and cathode of the battery, including lithium titanate walls and lithium iron phosphate, are only 60 microns wide, equal to the diameter of a human hair.

This tiny battery can power any device from a mobile phone to a smart implant prosthetic device on a human body.

2 - "A Boy and His Atom" - atomic "actor"

The team of scientists at IBM Research, Almaden, California has done an incredible job, using STM tunnel scanning microscopes to create the world's smallest still-life cartoon with integers. death. The purpose of the video is to attract community interest in new technology that can increase computer memory many times now.

The movie, titled "A Boy and His Atom", is done by arranging atoms to shape 242 still frames, thereby creating moving images. The movie is about a character called Atom, this guy befriends an atom and the two play together, dance, chase and throw themselves on a trampoline.

3 - Micro audio player

Despite its "ultra-small" size, the largest-sized New Kube music player on the list of 10 devices is considered here, each of which is only 1.9cm wide and weighs only about 28g. New Kube launched, making music players like the iPod Nano quite "bulky".

New Kube is an electronic board that is about the size of a fingernail and a lithium polymer battery that allows 6 hours of music playback. It can play all popular audio formats from a microSD card (2GB card included).

It also has controls for playing and pausing, transferring songs and adjusting volume. The device is pink, black, green, yellow and white for only 34 USD (equivalent to 730 thousand VND), this product has been distributed in Vietnam.

4 - World's smallest semiconductor laser light

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have successfully built the world's smallest semiconductor laser lamp, only 30 nanometers wide. This laser lamp is the right size for integrating into the chip of a computer or other media.

This laser light emits a strong green light from the atoms inside a small tube filled with indium gallium nitride. But this nanoscale laser light could be used to convert electronic signals into optical pulses, which help speed up data transmission in electronic circuits.

5 - Memory size is microscopic

Compared to SSD solid-state drives, other common hard drives seem outdated. However, future storage drives can compress data and store up to 200 times the current capacity.

Scientists at the German Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) have created a "micro memory" that occupies only 4 x 16 nanometers. Each of its "tooth" structures consists of 12 iron atoms, but can store 1 bit of data, the entire structure using a total of 96 atoms can store a full data byte. However, this structure is stable at a temperature of -267 ^o C. Thus, in the future we can completely create 100TB drives but only the size of current SSDs.

6 - Computer is about the size of a needle

If you think your smartphone is the smallest, you're wrong. David Wentzloff has developed tiny computers for many years at the University of Michigan, but his latest project is a closed computer just 1mm wide. Although the size of the device is just the tip of a needle, the nano computer still has two processors, a camera, a pressure sensor as well as a wireless transmitter and antenna. . The whole component is powered from an ultra-small solar panel and battery.

It is designed and manufactured to be implanted into the eyes of glaucoma patients to measure and transfer pressure into their eyes every 15 minutes.

7 - Insect robot

When you're being harassed by a bee, take a closer look, maybe it's not a bee but a "Mobee", an insect robot, and it might be watching you.

Developed at the Harvard Microrobotics laboratory, these Mobee insect robots can fly around objects to perform tasks such as monitoring or even pollinating plants. Harvard University's bee bees weigh only about 1/10 of 1g, are about the size of a quarter or like a true insect, they also have a pair of wings, chest and stabilizer (structure Small structures act as gyroscopes).

And of course, unlike an insect, Mobee is battery-powered, possessing a processor, sensor, wireless transmitter and antenna, and made from 18 layers of different materials.

8 - Super small capacitor with high capacity

Whether it's TV, computer or smart phone, one thing is for sure, most electronic devices today have dozens or even hundreds of capacitors to store and release electrical energy. Engineers at Japan's Murata Manufacturing company created one of the world's smallest capacitors.

Made of monolithic ceramics, these microcapacitors are only 0.13 x 0.13 x 0.25mm, smaller than a pencil tip and only a quarter of the capacitors that set the previous record . No bigger than a pollen grain, this tiny capacitor not only occupies less space, but also consumes less power, it is expected that this type of capacitor will be used later this year.

9 - The Declaration of Independence is very small

John Hancock's signature was quite large in the American Declaration of Independence, but in miniaturized copies made at Technion's Russell Berrie Institute of Technology in Israel, the signature became too small to look at. see with the naked eye. That's because Technion copied the entire Declaration of Independence of the United States (along with the Israeli Declaration of Independence) on a chip only 0.04mm square.

About the size of a dust particle, this copy duplicates the original but is etched by a Technion scientist into a gold-plated surface of only 20 nanometers by firing a focused beam of gallium ions. It was awarded to President Obama earlier this year.

10 - 3D size nano map

If you think finding a location on a smartphone map is difficult, it may be worse when IBM scientists have created a nano-sized 3D map, Specifically, this map is only 11 x 22 microns, which is only half the thickness of a human hair. On this map, Mount Everest is only 70 nanometers tall compared to 8.8 km in reality.

Scientists used a 500nm hot silicon nozzles to carve maps into polymer surfaces. It has recently been recognized by Guinness Book of Records as the world's smallest 3D map.