All news at TU Wien

TU sets record with smallest QR code

Researchers at TU Wien, in collaboration with the Austrian-German start-up Cerabyte, have made it into the Guinness Book of Records with the world's smallest QR code. The code measures less than two square micrometres, making it smaller than many bacteria.

Electron microscopists at work

Smallest QR code created in USTEM using electron microscope

Picture of the smalles QR Code

© TU Wien

GuinessRecord smallest QRCode TU Wien

Electron microscopists setting the world record

Creation of the smallest QR code at USTEM

Together with Prof. Paul Mayrhofer and his students Erwin Peck and Balint Hajas from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology, our USTEM employee Thomas Schachinger also contributed to getting TU Vienna into the Guinness Book of Records. Using focused ion beams, the QR code was milled into a thin ceramic layer – on an area of only 1.98 square micrometres. The code consists of 29 by 29 modules, with individual pixels measuring only 49 nanometres.

The QR code inscribed in a thin ceramic film can only be seen under an electron microscope. Thin ceramic films are used to coat high-performance tools to make them stable and durable under extreme conditions. This technology is believed to have great potential for long-term data storage, which has been difficult to achieve to date. Conventional magnetic or electrical data storage devices often only have a lifespan of a few years, and data stored in this way can only be preserved by means of a constant supply of energy, cooling and regular migration.

Once again, a step towards a more sustainable future has been taken.