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Printing
IBM scientists have helped National
Geographic Kids secure its ninth
GuinnessWorld Record, this time for
the world’s smallest magazine cover.
Measuring 11 x 14 micrometers, it is so
small that 2,000 could fit onto a single
grain of salt.
The March 2014 cover was etched
onto polymer using a tiny chisel with a
heatable silicon tip 100,000 times smaller
than a sharpened pencil point. It took just
10 minutes and 40 seconds to create.
The nanometer-sized tip, which can
be heated to 1000 degrees Celsius (1,832
degrees Fahrenheit), is attached to a
bendable cantilever that scans the surface
of the substrate material, with accuracy
of one nanometer – one millionth of a
millimeter.
By applying heat and force, the tip
can remove substrate material based on
predefined patterns, thus operating like
a ‘nanomilling’ machine or a 3D printer
with ultrahigh precision. Complex 3D
structures can be created by modulating
the force or readdressing individual spots
to remove differing amounts of material.
IBM scientists believe this process
could be used to develop more energy-
efficient and faster electronics for
anything from cloud data centres to
smartphones.
Dr. Armin Knoll, a physicist and
inventor at IBM Research, said: “To
create more energy-efficient clouds and
crunch Big Data faster, we need a new
generation of technologies including
novel transistors. But before we can put
these future technologies into mass
production, we need new techniques for
prototyping below 30 nanometers.With
our novel technique we can achieve very
high resolution at 10 nanometers at
greatly reduced cost and complexity.
In particular, by controlling the amount
of material evaporated, we can also
produce 3D relief patterns at the
unprecedented accuracy of merely one
nanometer in a vertical direction. Now
it’s up to the imagination of scientists
and engineers to apply this technique to
real-world challenges.”
One possible application is for nano-
sized security tags to prevent the forgery
of documents like passports and priceless
works of art. Another is in the emerging
field of quantum computing, where
quantum systems can be connected via
electromagnetic radiation or light. The
nano-sized tip could be used to create
high-quality patterns to control and
manipulate light with unprecedented
precision.
IBM has licensed the technology
to a start-up based in Switzerland
called SwissLitho, which is bringing the
technology to market under the name
NanoFrazor.
...it is so
small that
2,000 could
fit onto a
single grain
of salt.
That’s miniaturisation!
The inconvenience of running out of
ink in the middle of an important print
job or of suddenly having to spend £50
or £60 on replacement ink cartridges
could be consigned to the past with
the launch of HP Instant Ink.
So, too, could complaints about the
amount of ink used in the printhead
cleaning cycle or the amount of ink left
in 'empty’ cartridges.
Following a six month trial, HP is
making Instant Ink available through
broader distribution, including John Lewis
and PCWorld.
Instead of buying replacement ink
cartridges, customers pay a monthly
subscription and HP automatically delivers
as many replacement cartridges as the
customer needs on a just-in time basis.
Supplies are provided as part of the
subscription at no additional cost.
With Instant Ink, customers pay
for the number of pages they print,
not the amount of ink used. There are
three levels to choose from: Occasional
Printing (50 pages a month, £1.99
monthly subscription); Moderate Printing
(100 pages per month, £3.49 monthly
subscription); and Frequent Printing (300
pages per month, £7.99 subscription).
Up to one month’s worth of unused
pages can be saved in a rollover account
for use when you go over your page limit.
Alternatively, subscribers can pay £1 for
additional blocks of 15, 20 or 25 pages
(depending on the page plan) or switch to
a different package.
Instant Ink is available with a limited,
but growing, number of printers,
including consumer models (HP Envy/HP
Officejet) and small business devices
(HP Officejet Pro).
HP claims that customers who make
full use of their page allowances can save
up to 70% on ink costs. The risk is that if
you print less than your quota, you will
end up paying more per page than if you
bought ink on an ad hoc basis.
Even if that is the case, £1.99, £3.49
or £7.99 a month might be considered a
small price to pay for the convenience of
Instant Ink deliveries.
HP Instant
Ink launches
in UK
