The Aspen Leaf

The Aspen Leaf

We photographed this tiny rendition of a leaf from the Aspen tree on a late 1980s era Hewlett-Packard integrated circuit that is code-named "Aspen", an acronym for Acquisition Signal Processing ENgine. The chip was engineered to give the 56000 series HP digital oscilloscopes an "analog feel" to help smooth the transition from traditional analog scopes. An original leaf was used to model this doodle, which is probably the smallest Aspen leaf sculpture yet produced--weighing in at about 475 microns in size from stem tip to leaf tip. As big as this tiny leaf is with respect to other entries in the Silicon Zoo, it would still take about 25 billion to fill a real Aspen leaf. This chip also contains a disclaimer and the Colorado Maroon Bells wilderness featured elsewhere in the Zoo.

View this silicon artwork under brightfield and darkfield illumination.


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