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Nanomechanical storage device uses hot tips on a polymer surface
An animated view of the Millipede nanomechanical storage device illustrates how an individual tip creates an indentation in a polymer surface (bottom) and how a large number of such tips are operated in parallel (top). 
The Millipede concept: for operation of the device, the storage medium - a thin film of organic material (yellow) deposited on a silicon "table" - is brought into contact with the array of silicon tips (green) and moved in x- and y-direction for reading and writing. Multiplex drivers (red) allow addressing of each tip individually. 
Millipede cantilevers: zoom to a section of the Millipede cantilever array as seen in an optical microscope. 
Stored bits: storage areas assigned to individual tips may be discerned in the image on top left, which shows that more than 80 percent of the 1,024 cantilevers of an experimental setup were able to write data (zoom to 12 storage areas at right). The close-ups (center) present 40 nm (nanometers) wide indentations at a "pitch" (distance between centers of neighboring indentations) of 120 nm (left) and 40 nm (right), the latter leading to areal density of ca. 400 gigabits per square inch. The same magnification factor has been applied to the image at the bottom, which demonstrates the potential for Terabit-per-square-inch density with 10-nm-diameter marks at a 20-nm pitch. 
The Millipede chip: the image shows the electrical wiring for addressing the 1,024 tips etched out in a square of 3mm by 3mm (center). The chip's size is 7 mm by 14 mm. 
Millipede cantilevers and tips: electron microscope views of the 3 mm by 3 mm cantilever array (top), of an array section of 64 cantilevers (upper center), an individual cantilever (lower center), and an individual tip (bottom) positioned at the free end of the cantilever which is 70 micrometers (thousands of a millimeter) long, 10 micrometers wide, and 0.5 micrometers thick. The tip is less than 2 micrometers high and the radius at its apex smaller than 20 nanometers (millionths of a millimeter).
Millipede cantilevers and tips: electron microscope views of the 3 mm by 3 mm cantilever array (top), of an array section of 64 cantilevers (upper center), an individual cantilever (lower center), and an individual tip (bottom) positioned at the free end of the cantilever which is 70 micrometers (thousands of a millimeter) long, 10 micrometers wide, and 0.5 micrometers thick. The tip is less than 2 micrometers high and the radius at its apex smaller than 20 nanometers (millionths of a millimeter).
Millipede cantilevers and tips: electron microscope views of the 3 mm by 3 mm cantilever array (top), of an array section of 64 cantilevers (upper center), an individual cantilever (lower center), and an individual tip (bottom) positioned at the free end of the cantilever which is 70 micrometers (thousands of a millimeter) long, 10 micrometers wide, and 0.5 micrometers thick. The tip is less than 2 micrometers high and the radius at its apex smaller than 20 nanometers (millionths of a millimeter).
Millipede cantilevers and tips: electron microscope views of the 3 mm by 3 mm cantilever array (top), of an array section of 64 cantilevers (upper center), an individual cantilever (lower center), and an individual tip (bottom) positioned at the free end of the cantilever which is 70 micrometers (thousands of a millimeter) long, 10 micrometers wide, and 0.5 micrometers thick. The tip is less than 2 micrometers high and the radius at its apex smaller than 20 nanometers (millionths of a millimeter).The "Millipede" - Nanotechnology Entering Data Storage
See also: · 2002-06-11: IBM's 'Millipede' Project Demonstrates Trillion-Bit Data Storage Density