MEMS Journal -- The Largest MEMS Publication in the World

Water quality monitoring system enabled by optical MEMS technology

by John Williamson
Contributing Editor, MEMS Investor Journal

Real-time detection of degradation in the quality of public water supplies currently relies on bulky monitoring stations which typically contain a range of traditional, non-MEMS sensors and also require use of chemicals and continual maintenance.  This makes current systems too expensive to provide comprehensive monitoring coverage for an entire water distribution network, according to Optiqua Technologies, a company based in Singapore and The Netherlands.

DALSA delivers MEMS for JDSU's optical communication products

DALSA Semiconductor has announceed this week the qualification of a new generation of optical MEMS products for optical communications leader JDSU.  These new optical MEMS devices enable JDSU's ROADM products which are a key building block for the next generation of optical networks and improve the performance of the optical fiber networks on which today's telecommunications and internet traffic depend.

MEMS focus on cell phone camera market

by Roman Gutierrez
CTO and VP of Engineering, Tessera Technologies

Auto focus (AF) is a common feature for digital still cameras (DSCs) to ensure that the object being photographed is in focus.  However, AF has only recently been introduced into high-end cell phone cameras where the image quality, as well feature size and low cost, are critical requirements.  The most common AF actuator for DSCs, the stepper motor, failed when applied to the cell phone market as it could not be miniaturized or stand up to the cell phone’s more stringent reliability testing.  As a result, a variety of new technologies have emerged to fill this need, with MEMS technology leading the pack.

Optical MEMS finally arriving

by R. Colin Johnson
Contributing Editor, MEMS Investor Journal

Optical MEMS have long been a goal of forward-thinking electronics innovators, but these technologies have had a rocky development road.  Lately, however, the big money in semiconductor research – IBM and Intel – have reported significant successes in using the traditional CMOS toolkits to micromachine optical structures.  Related work is also being done at Hewlett-Packard, Alcatel-Lucent and other research labs worldwide.  Waveguides, gratings, resonators, modulators, and other tiny mechanical structures can effectively sculpt light for communication purposes when shrunk to sizes that correspond to the wavelength of light being manipulated.  And with the semiconductor powerhouses behind these efforts, optical MEMS may finally be on the threshold of mass commercialization.

MEMS enabled micro mirrors provide platform for single chip cameras

by John Williamson
Contributing Editor, MEMS Investor Journal

Belgium-based research center imec’s NVision machine-vision program provides a new platform that replaces separate camera lenses with MEMS enabled micro mirrors on a single chip.  “We set out to make a zoom lens system for digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras based on micro mirrors, providing full electronic control without mechanical movements.  Our goal is a camera half the size but with twice the zoom range of conventional DSLR cameras, and with no sacrifice in quality,” according to Dr. Francesco Pessolano, the NVision program manager at imec.

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.