SMALL BUT MIGHTY: The images of the logo was taken with the nanoFAB's Zeiss Orion NanoFab Helium Ion microscope.
(EDMONTON) The nanoFAB at UAlberta recently took the opportunity to show pride in the home team, the Edmonton Oilers, on their playoff run in pursuit of the Stanley Cup, the biggest prize in professional hockey. Working in partnership with two Edmonton companies who are developing new nanoscale fabrication processes to support commercialization of made-in-Alberta technology for photonics, sensors and nanomaterials, the nanoFAB created the world's smallest logo representing an ice hockey team.
Using a nanomaterial developed by Applied Quantum Materials, and nanoscale pattern correction methods developed by Applied Nanotools, the nanoFAB centre re-created a logo they had fabricated during the Oilers' last playoff run in 2006.
Only much smaller.
Whereas the Oilers 2006 logo was about the width of a human hair, the 2017 version is more than 40 times smaller: at only 2.4 µm in diameter, more than 900 million of these logos could fit on top of a hockey puck.
The fabrication of this logo does more than celebrate team spirit. It highlights several of the capabilities available at the nanoFAB.
HOW THEY DID IT: The Edmonton Oilers nano logo was fabricated via electron-beam lithography (EBL) with our Raith 150-TWO system, using AQM SIOX as the EBL resist-a made-in-Edmonton alternative to the ultra-high resolution hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) resist.
At such a small length scale, the nanoFAB uses sophisticated pattern correction techniques to ensure the fidelity of the design. This expertise was provided by engineers from Applied Nanotools, who use the same methods for their high-resolution silicon photonics service.