A MEMS based visible-NIR Fourier transform microspectrometer

Design, fabrication and characterization of a novel out-of-plane vertical comb-drive actuator based Fourier transform microspectrometer (FTS) is presented. The spectrometer utilizes resonant mode vertical comb actuators as a variable-depth diffraction grating and a single photodetector to monitor the 0th order of the diffraction pattern. The spectrum of the source illuminating the gratings is computed by Fourier transforming the 0th order intensity as a function of the optical path difference. The vertical comb actuators have a travel range of 100 mu m under atmospheric pressure with 28V excitation, which yields a theoretical spectral resolution of 0.5nm in the visible and better than 5nm in the telecom wavelengths.