Micromachined Tunable Fabry-Pérot Filter Integrated into a Miniaturized Spectrometer for Low-Cost Applications

Abstract

Producing miniaturized and low-cost components of high precision optical sensors has attracted a wide variety of fields. Fabry-Pérot-based filters can be considerably miniaturized without decreasing high spectral resolution, compared to grating-based spectroscopic devices. The filters are assembled by using MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical-systems) technologies. Tunable Fabry-Pérot filters enable miniaturized sensor components for spectrometers covering a wide area of applications in the visible and near infrared range. We demonstrate a concept of micromachined tunable Fabry-Pérot filters, suitable for precisely selecting very narrow wavelength bands and, thus, by tuning for measuring spectra in the visible and infrared spectral range. These tunable filters integrated into optical devices act as sensors for process monitoring, color detection or medical applications. The design and the fabrication processes are compatible with nanoimprint requirements to assemble arrays of filters for increasing the spectroscopic range.