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Japan has honed its micromachine sculpting skills with the creation of the
world’s smallest wine glass. Unveiled last week, the 2.75-micrometre-diameter
glass is one-sixth the width of a human hair. It was etched by an ion beam to
showcase a new nanoscale machining technique developed jointly by NEC, Seiko
Instruments and the Himeji Institute of Technology. Using a tightly focused ion
beam with a diameter of 10 nanometres, and a computer-controlled electromagnetic
deflection system, NEC says it can carve nano features with much more accuracy
than 2D microchip-style etching techniques. It says it can etch a curve in an
object just 100 nanometres across. Now all we need is a nano corkscrew…