micromachine

noun

mi·​cro·​ma·​chine ˌmī-krō-mə-ˈshēn 

: a device or machine constructed on a microscopic scale

The hardest material, and one of the most chemically inert, diamond is extremely difficult to fabricate into electronic devices or micromachines.

—Physics Today

especially : such a device constructed using the techniques of lithography

Unlike the way Swiss watches are made, silicon micromachines are built in one piece and ready to go. Their three-dimensional structures are created by stacking up a series of very thin, carefully detailed layers of silicon, each one deposited directly on the layer before. As a final step, acid etches away the in-between "sacrificial" layers to free the moving parts.

—Doug Stewart

Examples of micromachine in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

First, Butterfly’s engineers replaced the piezoelectrics with a micromachine that acts like a tiny drum to generate vibrations. —IEEE Spectrum, 27 Oct. 2017

Self-replicating micromachines (not discussed by Feynman) would unleash the magic of exponential growth, opening a new epoch in engineering. —Frank Wilczek, WSJ, 25 Apr. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined above