Convert Micrometer (µm) to Nanometer (nm) instantly.
About these units
Micrometer (µm)
A micrometer, or micron, is one-millionth of a meter. It occupies an important niche between nanometer-scale molecular measurements and millimeter-scale visible objects. The micrometer is essential in biology, where it measures cells, bacteria, and tissue structures; in materials science, where it expresses grain sizes and coating thicknesses; and in optics, where it represents wavelengths of infrared radiation. Manufacturing processes, especially semiconductor and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), rely heavily on micrometer precision. Even slight variations of a few micrometers can significantly alter performance or failure rates. The accessibility of micrometer-level imaging through modern microscopes has made this unit foundational to many scientific fields.
Nanometer (nm)
A nanometer—one billionth of a meter (10⁻⁹ m)—is central to nanoscience, nanotechnology, and molecular biology. Many structures essential to life fall into this scale: DNA's double helix is about 2 nm wide, viruses often measure tens to hundreds of nanometers, and key cell structures like ribosomes are on the order of 20–30 nm. In engineering, nanometers define the dimensions of modern semiconductor technology. Silicon transistors have shrunk to features only a few nanometers wide, approaching the physical limits of electron behavior in solid-state materials. In optics, wavelengths of ultraviolet light can be expressed in nanometers, as can surface roughness, material grain sizes, and thin-film coatings. The nanometer is ubiquitous across modern science because it describes both biological and technological structures at the frontier of research.