Researchers have created the smallest QR code in the world, measuring just 3.07 × 10⁻⁹ square inches (1.98 square micrometers). It can store data for thousands of years, and it’s so small you need an electron microscope to see it.
Each pixel in the QR code is only 49 nanometers in diameter, even smaller than a bacterium, ensuring its place as a Guinness World Record. It was made by etching the grid into a thin ceramic film with a focused ion beam. That’s about 37% of the size of the former world record holder and about 0.0000004% of the size of a standard 0.8 square inch (2 cm)2) QR code.
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The creation of a data storage device on such a small scale opens up the potential for extremely high storage density. The researchers at TU Wien in Austria, who developed the QR code in collaboration with data storage company Cerabyte, estimate that over 2 terabytes of data can fit on the surface of a single A4 sheet (8½ x 11) etched with the pixels – that’s more data than you can hold on most laptops.
In contrast, it covered the same area in 0.8 square inches (2 cm2) Version 1 QR codes would only contain about 2.5 kilobytes, equivalent to a page of plain text.
QR codes that can store data for millennia
Despite its record-breaking size, the QR code is even more impressive for its durability, the team said.
“Micrometer-scale structures are not unusual today – it is even possible to create patterns made of individual atoms,” Paul Mayrhoferhead of the Thin Film Materials Science Research Group at TU Vienna, said in a statement. “But that alone does not result in stable, readable code.”
Magnetic storage solutions such as hard drives and solid-state drives tend to degrade afterwards about a decadewhile optical media, such as CDs and DVDs, may last only 30 year. As a result, all of today’s digital data risks being lost to time if a more stable solution is not found.
Because of this potential for degradation, the team decided to create their QR code using a film of chromium nitride, a ceramic compound. Ceramics is known for remain stable even under extreme conditionshence their use in high performance cutting tools. The researchers said the data their QR codes store could be preserved for millennia.
“With ceramic storage media, we are pursuing a similar approach to ancient cultures, whose inscriptions we can still read today.” Alexander Kirnbauera senior researcher in the Thin Film Materials Science Research Group at TU Vienna, said in the statement. “We write information into stable, inert materials that stand the test of time and remain fully accessible to future generations.”
A greener solution to AI addiction
Another advantage of tiny ceramic QR codes is that they do not require energy supply or cooling to preserve the data. Data centers, on the other hand, require constant power to run servers and maintain cooling systems to prevent damage from overheating. They accounted for around 1.5% of the world’s electricity consumption in 2024, according to International Energy Agency.
A more environmentally friendly alternative massive carbon-guzzling data centers we depend on is an urgent need, especially as our dependence grows with the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI). Market research firm IDC estimates that the amount of data the world produces in one year will have tripled from 173.4 zettabytes (173.4 billion TB) in 2024 to 527.5 ZB in 2029.
The team is now looking at other materials for their QR codes, techniques to increase writing speed and industrial-scale production methods. They also want to see if more complex data structures than QR codes can be written on and read from ceramic films.
