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A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "A：Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2019) | Viewed by 76024

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Prof. Dr. Frederic Zamkotsian

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Guest Editor

Aix Marseille Universite, CNRS, CNES, LAM, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, 38 Rue Frédéric Joliot Curie, 13388 Marseille CEDEX 13, France
Interests: MOEMS; micromirror arrays; MOEMS characterization; astronomical instrumentation; spectrographs; spectro-imagers; space optical instrumentation; universe observation; earth observation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Huikai Xie

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Guest Editor

School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: MEMS; CMOS-MEMS sensors; micromirrors; microactuators; piezoelectric MEMS microspeakers; pMUTs; photoacoustic microscopy; optical endomicroscopy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Optical microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), microoptoelectromechanical systems (MOEMS), or optical microsystems, are devices or systems that interact with light through actuation or sensing at a micron or millimeter scale. Optical MEMS have had enormous commercial success in projectors, displays, and fiberoptic communications. The best known example is Texas Instruments’ digital micromirror devices (DMDs). The development of optical MEMS was impeded seriously by the Telecom Bubble in 2000. Fortunately, DMDs grew their market size even in that enconomy downturn. Meanwhile, in the last one and half decades, the optical MEMS market has been slowly but steadily recovering. During this time span, the major technological change was the shift of thin-film polysilicon microstructures to single-crystal-silicon microsructures. Especially in the last few years, cloud data centers demand large-port optical cross connects (OXCs), autonous driving looks for miniature LiDAR, and virtual reality/augumented reality (VR/AR) demands tiny optical scanners. This is a new wave of opportunities for optical MEMS. Furthermore, several research institutes around the world have been developing MOEMS devices for extreme applications (very fine tailoring of light beam in terms of phase, intensity, or wavelength) and/or extreme environments (vacuum, cryogenic temperatures) for many years. Accordingly, this Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers, short communications, and review articles that focus on (1) novel design, fabrication, control, and modeling of optical MEMS devices based on all kinds of actuation/sensing mechanisms; and (2) new developments of applying optical MEMS devices of any kind in consumer electronics, optical communications, industry, biology, medicine, agriculture, physics, astronomy, space, or defense.

Prof. Huikai Xie
Prof. Frederic Zamkotsian
Guest Editors

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Keywords

micromirrors
microlenses
tunable lenses
metalenses
microgratings
microbolometers
endomicroscopy
microspectrometers
beam steering
optical phased arrays
optical switches
VOA
micro-LiDAR
OXC
DMD
optical MEMS sensors

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Related Special Issues

Optical MEMS, Volume II in Micromachines (17 articles)
Optical MEMS, Volume III in Micromachines (8 articles)

Published Papers (14 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

3 pages, 154 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Editorial for the Special Issue on Optical MEMS

by Huikai Xie and Frederic Zamkotsian

Micromachines 2019, 10(7), 458; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10070458 - 7 Jul 2019

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2432

Abstract

Optical micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems (MOEMS), or optical microsystems are devices or systems that interact with light through actuation or sensing at a micron or millimeter scale [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

14 pages, 5843 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Electrothermal Cu/W Bimorph Tip-Tilt-Piston MEMS Mirror with High Reliability

by Liang Zhou, Xiaoyang Zhang and Huikai Xie

Micromachines 2019, 10(5), 323; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10050323 - 14 May 2019

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 6344

Abstract

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of an electrothermal MEMS mirror with large tip, tilt and piston scan. This MEMS mirror is based on electrothermal bimorph actuation with Cu and W thin-film layers forming the bimorphs. The MEMS mirror is fabricated via a combination of surface and bulk micromachining. The piston displacement and tip-tilt optical angle of the mirror plate of the fabricated MEMS mirror are around 114 μm and ±8°, respectively at only 2.35 V. The measured response time is 7.3 ms. The piston and tip-tilt resonant frequencies are measured to be 1.5 kHz and 2.7 kHz, respectively. The MEMS mirror survived 220 billion scanning cycles with little change of its scanning characteristics, indicating that the MEMS mirror is stable and reliable. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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15 pages, 4420 KiB

Open AccessArticle

2D Au-Coated Resonant MEMS Scanner for NIR Fluorescence Intraoperative Confocal Microscope

by Cheng-You Yao, Bo Li and Zhen Qiu

Micromachines 2019, 10(5), 295; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10050295 - 30 Apr 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4148

Abstract

The electrostatic MEMS scanner plays an important role in the miniaturization of the microscopic imaging system. We have developed a new two-dimensional (2D) parametrically-resonant MEMS scanner with patterned Au coating (>90% reflectivity at an NIR 785-nm wavelength), for a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence intraoperative confocal microscopic imaging system with a compact form factor. A silicon-on-insulator (SOI)-wafer based dicing-free microfabrication process has been developed for mass-production with high yield. Based on an in-plane comb-drive configuration, the resonant MEMS scanner performs 2D Lissajous pattern scanning with a large mechanical scanning angle (MSA, ±4°) on each axis at low driving voltage (36 V). A large field-of-view (FOV) has been achieved by using a post-objective scanning architecture of the confocal microscope. We have integrated the new MEMS scanner into a custom-made NIR fluorescence intraoperative confocal microscope with an outer diameter of 5.5 mm at its distal-end. Axial scanning has been achieved by using a piezoelectric actuator-based driving mechanism. We have successfully demonstrated ex vivo 2D imaging on human tissue specimens with up to five frames/s. The 2D resonant MEMS scanner can potentially be utilized for many applications, including multiphoton microendoscopy and wide-field endoscopy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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14 pages, 18575 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Input Shaping Based on an Experimental Transfer Function for an Electrostatic Microscanner in a Quasistatic Mode

by Kwanghyun Kim, Seunghwan Moon, Jinhwan Kim, Yangkyu Park and Jong-Hyun Lee

Micromachines 2019, 10(4), 217; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10040217 - 27 Mar 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2649

Abstract

This paper describes an input shaping method based on an experimental transfer function to effectively obtain a desired scan output for an electrostatic microscanner driven in a quasistatic mode. This method features possible driving extended to a higher frequency, whereas the conventional control needs dynamic modeling and is still ineffective in mitigating harmonics, sub-resonances, and/or higher modes. The performance of the input shaping was experimentally evaluated in terms of the usable scan range (USR), and its application limits were examined with respect to the optical scan angle and frequency. The experimental results showed that the usable scan range is as wide as 96% for a total optical scan angle (total OSA) of up to 9° when the criterion for scan line error is 1.5%. The usable scan ranges were degraded for larger total optical scan angles because of the nonlinear electrostatic torque with respect to the driving voltage. The usable scan range was 90% or higher for most frequencies up to 160 Hz and was drastically decreased for the higher driving frequency because fewer harmonics are included in the input shaping process. Conclusively, the proposed method was experimentally confirmed to show good performance in view of its simplicity and its operable range, quantitatively compared with that of the conventional control. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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10 pages, 3533 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Programmable Spectral Filter in C-Band Based on Digital Micromirror Device

by Yunshu Gao, Xiao Chen, Genxiang Chen, Zhongwei Tan, Qiao Chen, Dezheng Dai, Qian Zhang and Chao Yu

Micromachines 2019, 10(3), 163; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10030163 - 27 Feb 2019

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4368

Abstract

Optical filters have been adopted in many applications such as reconfigurable telecommunication switches, tunable lasers and spectral imaging. However, most of commercialized filters based on a micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS) only provide a minimum bandwidth of 25 GHz in telecom so far. In this work, the programmable filter based on a digital micromirror device (DMD) experimentally demonstrated a minimum bandwidth of 12.5 GHz in C-band that matched the grid width of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) G.694.1 standard. It was capable of filtering multiple wavebands simultaneously and flexibly by remotely uploading binary holograms onto the DMD. The number of channels and the center wavelength could be adjusted independently, as well as the channel bandwidth and the output power. The center wavelength tuning resolution of this filter achieved 0.033 nm and the insertion loss was about 10 dB across the entire C-band. Since the DMD had a high power handling capability (25 KW/cm²) of around 200 times that of the liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) chip, the DMD-based filters are expected to be applied in high power situations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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13 pages, 4775 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Improvement on the Performance of DMD Hadamard Transform Near-Infrared Spectrometer by Double Filter Strategy and a New Hadamard Mask

by Zifeng Lu, Jinghang Zhang, Hua Liu, Jialin Xu and Jinhuan Li

Micromachines 2019, 10(2), 149; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10020149 - 23 Feb 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3678

Abstract

In the Hadamard transform (HT) near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer, there are defects that can create a nonuniform distribution of spectral energy, significantly influencing the absorbance of the whole spectrum, generating stray light, and making the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the spectrum inconsistent. To address this issue and improve the performance of the digital micromirror device (DMD) Hadamard transform near-infrared spectrometer, a split waveband scan mode is proposed to mitigate the impact of the stray light, and a new Hadamard mask of variable-width stripes is put forward to improve the SNR of the spectrometer. The results of the simulations and experiments indicate that by the new scan mode and Hadamard mask, the influence of stray light is restrained and reduced. In addition, the SNR of the spectrometer also is increased. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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12 pages, 2090 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on a Dual-Mode Infrared Liquid-Crystal Device for Simultaneous Electrically Adjusted Filtering and Zooming

by Zhonglun Liu, Mingce Chen, Zhaowei Xin, Wanwan Dai, Xinjie Han, Xinyu Zhang, Haiwei Wang and Changsheng Xie

Micromachines 2019, 10(2), 137; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10020137 - 19 Feb 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2871

Abstract

A new dual-mode liquid-crystal (LC) micro-device constructed by incorporating a Fabry–Perot (FP) cavity and an arrayed LC micro-lens for performing simultaneous electrically adjusted filtering and zooming in infrared wavelength range is presented in this paper. The main micro-structure is a micro-cavity consisting of two parallel zinc selenide (ZnSe) substrates that are pre-coated with ~20-nm aluminum (Al) layers which served as their high-reflection films and electrodes. In particular, the top electrode of the device is patterned by 44 × 38 circular micro-holes of 120 μm diameter, which also means a 44 × 38 micro-lens array. The micro-cavity with a typical depth of ~12 μm is fully filled by LC materials. The experimental results show that the spectral component with needed frequency or wavelength can be selected effectively from incident micro-beams, and both the transmission spectrum and the point spread function can be adjusted simultaneously by simply varying the root-mean-square value of the signal voltage applied, so as to demonstrate a closely correlated feature of filtering and zooming. In addition, the maximum transmittance is already up to ~20% according the peak-to-valley value of the spectral transmittance curves, which exhibits nearly twice the increment compared with that of the ordinary LC-FP filtering without micro-lenses. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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11 pages, 1652 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Measuring Ocular Aberrations Sequentially Using a Digital Micromirror Device

by Alessandra Carmichael Martins and Brian Vohnsen

Micromachines 2019, 10(2), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10020117 - 12 Feb 2019

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4905

Abstract

The Hartmann–Shack wavefront sensor is widely used to measure aberrations in both astronomy and ophthalmology. Yet, the dynamic range of the sensor is limited by cross-talk between adjacent lenslets. In this study, we explore ocular aberration measurements with a recently-proposed variant of the sensor that makes use of a digital micromirror device for sequential aperture scanning of the pupil, thereby avoiding the use of a lenslet array. We report on results with the sensor using two different detectors, a lateral position sensor and a charge-coupled device (CCD) scientific camera, and explore the pros and cons of both. Wavefront measurements of a highly aberrated artificial eye and of five real eyes, including a highly myopic subject, are demonstrated, and the role of pupil sampling density, CCD pixel binning, and scanning speed are explored. We find that the lateral position sensor is mostly suited for high-power applications, whereas the CCD camera with pixel binning performs consistently well both with the artificial eye and for real-eye measurements, and can outperform a commonly-used wavefront sensor with highly aberrated wavefronts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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11 pages, 8884 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multiple Laser Stripe Scanning Profilometry Based on Microelectromechanical Systems Scanning Mirror Projection

by Gailing Hu, Xiang Zhou, Guanliang Zhang, Chunwei Zhang, Dong Li and Gangfeng Wang

Micromachines 2019, 10(1), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10010057 - 16 Jan 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4144

Abstract

In traditional laser-based 3D measurement technology, the width of the laser stripe is uncontrollable and uneven. In addition, speckle noise in the image and the noise caused by mechanical movement may reduce the accuracy of the scanning results. This work proposes a new multiple laser stripe scanning profilometry (MLSSP) based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) scanning mirror which can project high quality movable laser stripe. It can implement full-field scanning in a short time and does not need to move the measured object or camera. Compared with the traditional laser stripe, the brightness, width and position of the new multiple laser stripes projected by MEMS scanning mirror can be controlled by programming. In addition, the new laser strip can generate high-quality images and the noise caused by mechanical movement is completely eliminated. The experimental results show that the speckle noise is less and the light intensity distribution is more even. Furthermore, the number of pictures needed to be captured is significantly reduced to

1 / N

(

N

is the number of multiple laser stripes projected by MEMS scanning mirror) and the measurement efficiency is increased by

N

times, improving the efficiency and accuracy of 3D measurement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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14 pages, 7879 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Hybrid 3D Shape Measurement Using the MEMS Scanning Micromirror

by Tao Yang, Guanliang Zhang, Huanhuan Li and Xiang Zhou

Micromachines 2019, 10(1), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10010047 - 11 Jan 2019

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 6321

Abstract

A surface with large reflection variations represents one of the biggest challenges for optical 3D shape measurement. In this work, we propose an alternative hybrid 3D shape measurement approach, which combines the high accuracy of fringe projection profilometry (FPP) with the robustness of laser stripe scanning (LSS). To integrate these two technologies into one system, first, we developed a biaxial Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) scanning micromirror projection system. In this system, a shaped laser beam serves as a light source. The MEMS micromirror projects the laser beam onto the object surface. Different patterns are produced by controlling the laser source and micromirror jointly. Second, a quality wised algorithm is delivered to develop a hybrid measurement scheme. FPP is applied to obtain the main 3D information. Then, LSS helps to reconstruct the missing depth guided by the quality map. After this, the data fusion algorithm is used to merge and output complete measurement results. Finally, our experiments show significant improvement in the accuracy and robustness of measuring a surface with large reflection variations. In the experimental instance, the accuracy of the proposed method is improved by 0.0278 mm and the integrity is improved by 83.55%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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8 pages, 2651 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Tunable Fiber Laser with High Tuning Resolution in C-band Based on Echelle Grating and DMD Chip

by Jinliang Li, Xiao Chen, Dezheng Dai, Yunshu Gao, Min Lv and Genxiang Chen

Micromachines 2019, 10(1), 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10010037 - 8 Jan 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4739

Abstract

The tunable fiber laser with high tuning resolution in the C-band is proposed and demonstrated based on a digital micromirror device (DMD) chip and an echelle grating. The laser employs a DMD as a programmable wavelength filter and an echelle grating with high-resolution features to design a cross-dispersion optical path to achieve high-precision tuning. Experimental results show that wavelength channels with 3 dB-linewidth less than 0.02 nm can be tuned flexibly in the C-band and the wavelength tuning resolution is as small as 0.036 nm. The output power fluctuation is better than 0.07 dB, and the wavelength shift is below 0.013 nm in 1 h at room temperature. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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9 pages, 5800 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A MEMS Variable Optical Attenuator with Ultra-Low Wavelength-Dependent Loss and Polarization-Dependent Loss

by Huangqingbo Sun, Wei Zhou, Zijing Zhang and Zhujun Wan

Micromachines 2018, 9(12), 632; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9120632 - 29 Nov 2018

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4803

Abstract

Applications in broadband optical fiber communication system need variable optical attenuators (VOAs) with low wavelength-dependent loss (WDL). Based on analysis on the dispersion of the optical system of a MEMS-based VOA, we provide a method to reduce the WDL significantly with minor revision on the end-face angle of the collimating lens. Two samples are assembled, and the measured WDL is <0.4 dB over the C-band (1.53–1.57 μm) at a 0–20 dB attenuation range. Meanwhile, the new structure helps to reduce the polarization-dependent loss (PDL) to <0.15 dB, which is only half that of conventional devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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9 pages, 13040 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

FR4-Based Electromagnetic Scanning Micromirror Integrated with Angle Sensor

by Hongjie Lei, Quan Wen, Fan Yu, Ying Zhou and Zhiyu Wen

Micromachines 2018, 9(5), 214; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9050214 - 2 May 2018

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 6295

Abstract

This paper presents a flame retardant 4 (FR4)-based electromagnetic scanning micromirror, which aims to overcome the limitations of conventional microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) micromirrors for the large-aperture and low-frequency scanning applications. This micromirror is fabricated through a commercial printed circuit board (PCB) technology at a low cost and with a short process cycle, before an aluminum-coated silicon mirror plate with a large aperture is bonded on the FR4 platform to provide a high surface quality. In particular, an electromagnetic angle sensor is integrated to monitor the motion of the micromirror in real time. A prototype has been assembled and tested. The results show that the micromirror can reach the optical scan angle of 11.2

^{\circ}

with a low driving voltage of only 425 mV at resonance (361.8 Hz). At the same time, the signal of the integrated angle sensor also shows good signal-to-noise ratio, linearity and sensitivity. Finally, the reliability of the FR4 based micro-mirror has been tested. The prototype successfully passes both shock and vibration tests. Furthermore, the results of the long-term mechanical cycling test (50 million cycles) suggest that the maximum variations of resonant frequency and scan angle are less than 0.3% and 6%, respectively. Therefore, this simple and robust micromirror has great potential in being useful in a number of optical microsystems, especially when large-aperture or low-frequency is required. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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Review

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21 pages, 8981 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperReview

Metalens-Based Miniaturized Optical Systems

by Bo Li, Wibool Piyawattanametha and Zhen Qiu

Micromachines 2019, 10(5), 310; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10050310 - 8 May 2019

Cited by 50 | Viewed by 14606

Abstract

Metasurfaces have been studied and widely applied to optical systems. A metasurface-based flat lens (metalens) holds promise in wave-front engineering for multiple applications. The metalens has become a breakthrough technology for miniaturized optical system development, due to its outstanding characteristics, such as ultrathinness and cost-effectiveness. Compared to conventional macro- or meso-scale optics manufacturing methods, the micro-machining process for metalenses is relatively straightforward and more suitable for mass production. Due to their remarkable abilities and superior optical performance, metalenses in refractive or diffractive mode could potentially replace traditional optics. In this review, we give a brief overview of the most recent studies on metalenses and their applications with a specific focus on miniaturized optical imaging and sensing systems. We discuss approaches for overcoming technical challenges in the bio-optics field, including a large field of view (FOV), chromatic aberration, and high-resolution imaging. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical MEMS)

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