by Aston Bridgmanâ
TOKYO December 7th, 2000 – NEC Corporation (NEC) (NASDAQ: NIPNY, FTSE: 6701q.l, TSE: 6701), Professor Shinji Matsui’s research group at the Himeji Institute of Technology (HIT) and Seiko Instruments Inc. (SII), have made the world’s smallest wine glass. Using highly advanced manufacturing techniques that can produce three dimensional (3D) objects at the nanometer scale (one nanometer is one-billionth of a meter), researchers built the glass from carbon with an external diameter of only 2,750 nanometers (nm), approximately 20,000 times smaller than a normal sized glass.
This 3D manufacturing technique resolves the considerable problem facing semiconductor and other highly advanced electronic component manufacturers about how to realize future generation products. As products progress from the micron scale (one micron is one-millionth of a meter) to the nanometer scale, it becomes much more problematic to build highly detailed structures…
