“Girls’ Day” finally back in presence  

After a two-year break due to the pandemic, the Girls’ Day could finally take place again in presence. AMO took this opportunity  to introduce seven young girls to the broad field of nanotechnology. 

Not only was the AMO team happy to be able to organize such events again, but also the girls were very interested and open to this very innovative field of work.

Girls’ Day usually takes place once a year. The goal of this nation-wide action is to motivate young girls from the seventh to the ninth grade to take up technical and scientific professions, which are still largely dominated by the male world.

After a brief introductory talk in the AMO cupola, the girls went to the cleanroom, the heart of AMO. Here, AMO’s scientists deal with functional structures that are ten thousand times thinner than a hair! Since every speck of dust is larger than the component to be manufactured, nanotechnology takes place in low-particle laboratories, known as cleanrooms.

The sight of each other in the somewhat unusual cleanroom suits caused quite a few laughs. The girls learned about the individual process steps of lithography for creating structures on silicon chips and to produce their first own wafer.

In addition, the girls were also able to experiment on the scanning electron microscope. This special microscope can magnify structures up to 150 thousand times. The girls use this technique to examine the facets of a fly’s eye more closely.

All in all, it was a very successful day for everyone involved and many “smart” everyday things became a little more tangible. What was just a futuristic idea a few years ago, was met with lively “aha” effects today.

At the end of the event, each of the girls was allowed to take home her own wafer with the Girls’ Day logo.