Color printing on a surface the size of a grain of salt

Employees of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH) reported the smallest color image created using inkjet technology. The size of the image is so small that it can be seen only in a special microscope. It shows the clown fish floating near the aquarium plants, sea anemones. The area of ​​the image is only 0.0092 mm 2 or 80 mm x 115 mm, which is comparable to the area of ​​the cross section of a human hair.
 


Print used a unique patented technology NanoDrop, in which the printing ink quantum dot nanoparticle specific shapes and sizes. Each type of nanoparticle emits light of a well-defined color, and their small size can achieve high levels of accuracy, intensity and color.
As with conventional imaging technologies are intermediate colors by mixing the three primary colors, red, green, and blue. Only in this case the image is formed by coating the surface of the layers of quantum dots of different colors and different thicknesses. The resolution of the image created is 25,000 dpi, and precise control of the thickness of the layers of quantum dots provides a color quality of 24 bits per pixel.