- Who
- Micro Chess
- What
- 435µm x 435µm micrometre(s) aka micron(s)
- Where
- United States ()
- When
A micro chess board, created by students at Texas Tech University in Texas, USA, measures only 435 micrometres (0.017 inches) by 435 micrometres (0.017 inches). It is an active chess set with "micro-pieces" engraved with the design of traditional chess figures, created at the Sandia National Laboratories (USA) micro-fabrication facility. Each piece is approximately 50 micrometres square (0.002 inches) and features tiny stubs that allow an integrated robotic arm to move them from square to square. Bi-directional linear drives move the pieces across and up/down the board, while space along the side of the board is used to hold captured pieces.
The students won a prize for the development in Sandia's 2010 annual competition for novel microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
