MEMS, Microfluidics and Microsystems Executive Review

MOEMS actuator moves FTIR spectrometers from lab to the field

by John Williamson
Contributing Editor, MEMS Investor Journal

Conventional FTIR spectrometers are characterized as bulky and sensitive to vibration and mechanical shock.  This sensitivity causes spectrometer mirror plates to come out of adjustment thereby rendering the instrument to be unusable until it is readjusted.  These weaknesses confine spectrometer application to laboratories with operation and readjustment performed by highly trained personnel.

MEMS pico projectors aim at mass market

by R. Colin Johnson, Contributing Editor
MEMS Investor Journal

Digital micro-mirrors could become the next mass market MEMS chip as pico projectors are built into a wide array of consumer products.

Today Texas Instruments (TI) leads with its MEMS digital light processing (DLP) chip for pico projectors. TI's main competition is liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) which is essentially a reflective LCD shrunk down to the size of a CMOS chip.  TI's DLP, however, benefits from a 20-year development lead on LCoS, over which time it sold over 20 million units for projection TVs and digital cinemas.

IMT to produce MEMS wavelength switches for Capella

"We needed a world class technology and foundry partner who had proven before that it could tackle hard problems and bring highly complex MEMS devices into production.  We evaluated foundries around the world and chose IMT," said Larry Schwerin, CEO of Capella.

MOEMS: history, current status and future trends

While MOEMS, the combination of micro-optics and MEMS, have been slowed down by the telecom downturn in the early part of this decade, these technologies are now making a comeback.  In addition to telecom, MOEMS applications include sensors, projection and mobile systems and devices. 

We recently spoke with Dr. M. Edward Motamedi who is the author and editor of a recently published MOEMS book and the founder of Revoltech Microsystems.  Dr. Motamedi is one of the top experts in the field of MOEMS and is a Fellow of SPIE.

Optical MEMS: A Brief History and Future Trends

We recently spoke with Dr. Joseph Ford about optical MEMS.  In this detailed interview,  Dr. Ford reviews the history of optical MEMS and discusses possible future trends.