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Microchip with 1.2 Million Names

Close-up of microchip with 1.2 million names

July 24, 2012

A close-up view of a microchip with 1.2 million names that will be placed aboard NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover.

Engineers etched the names onto a silicon wafer or microchip. They used an electron beam "E-beam" machine at JPL that specializes in etching very tiny features (less than 1 micron, or less than the width of a human hair!). They normally use this machine to make high-precision microdevices in JPL's Microdevices Laboratory.

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech

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