MICRO-OBJECTS OF THE FUTURE
A 200 micron long Statue of Liberty, a micro-catheter soon capable of sliding its way through the narrowest blood capillaries, a bolt that is no more than a few tens of microns wide and which will help fix tomorrow's hard disk parts, the list goes on. These tiny objects, designed out of epoxy resin with a minute accuracy and an unparalleled precision such as was never dreamed of yesterday, are a reality today. That is thanks to a unique technique developed at the Micro-system Institute in the Lausanne Ecole Polytechnique Federale called Micro- photolithography. It consists in projecting through video reduced images of any objects onto a resin which will solidify on its stimulated spots. Layer after layer, and in a few hours, the object takes shape out of resin. This technological feat renders possible the design of complex three-dimensional objects with a perfection of details at an unbelievable small size. And believe it or not, there is a huge market for micro-objects - Micro-medicine for example, which focuses on the treatment of small organs like extremely thin veins, and micro-computer sciences which shall need ever smaller components. It could also raise the interest of collectors. They could own the smallest version in the world of their favorite object, only to be sold with an accompanying magnifying glass. Indeed, a 150-micron long Porsche has already been created through micro-photolithography.