Smaller than bacteria: Vienna University of Technology has created the world's smallest QR code. It measures 1.98 square micrometres and is milled into a ceramic layer using focused ion beams. Each pixel is just 49 nanometres, which makes the code invisible to visible light. It can only be read with an electron microscope. Researchers at Vienna University of Technology carried out the project with Cerabyte, a company working on long‑term data storage technologies. Their shared focus lies in materials research. Conventional digital storage requires constant energy input, cooling systems and periodic data migration. Ceramic films behave differently. They remain stable under extreme conditions and preserve structural information over long periods. The experiment demonstrates that ceramic media can hold dense information in a compact and durable format.

Smaller than a bacterium!
@tuwien.at has created the world’s smallest QR code: just 1.98 µm² and visible only under an electron microscope. A milestone for ceramic data storage-extremely durable, compact, and energy-efficient.

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