Micro Opto-Electro-Mechanical

Systems (MOEMS)

Outlines

MOEMS overview
Applications
Packaging

?What is MOEMs

Micro-opto-electromechanical systems
(MOEMS), or optical MEMS, are systems
involving micromachining of structures in the
micro- to millimeter range whose purposes are
to manipulate light.
It is not a special class of Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) but in fact it is
MEMS merged with Micro-optics which
involves sensing or manipulating optical signals
on a very small size scale using integrated
mechanical, optical, and electrical systems .
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Todays MOEMS devices include

Optical Switch , waveguides,
moving mirrors and diffractive
gratings
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*Micromachining : techniques for fabrication of

3D structures on the micrometer scale

Applications include MEMS devices

Most methods use silicon as substrate
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MOEMS Fabrication

MOEMS devices are typically made

using standard lithography methods
giving the advantages of a compact
design and fabrication at a low cost.
These devices are usually fabricated
using micro-optics and standard
micromachining technologies using
materials like silicon, silicon dioxide,
silicon nitride and gallium arsenide.
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Rockwell Science Center also developed

refractive microlens technology, including gray
scale photolithography.
Diffractive microlenses based on binary optic
structures are typically fabricated in bulk
material by multiple sequential layers of
photoresist patterning and reactive ion etching
(RIE), to form a multi-step phase profile.
This profile approximates the ideal kinoform lens
surface. A special staircase process, called
binary optics, is used to fabricate diffractive
components.
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With so many successes in Micro-optics

and MEMS, Rockwell researchers who
were involved in both MEMS and Microoptics, initiate development of several of
innovative photonics ideas combing both
technologies.
This was behind the acronym of MOEMS,
when both MEMS and Micro-optics were
merged in one single IC processing lab.
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MOEMS is a promising multi technology for

miniaturization of critical optical systems.
The acronym is defined of three high tech
fields of micro-optics, micromechanics, and
microelectronics.
MOEMS indirectly could merge in
micromachining, microsensors and
microactuators if their processes are
compatible with integrated circuits.
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Merging all these multi technologies,

made MOEMS an ideal knowhow for
many industrial demonstrations of
commercial devices, such as optical
switches, digital micromirror devices
(DMD), bistable mirrors, laser
scanners, optical shutters, and
dynamic micromirror displays.
Hamdy Fadl 500512011

Hybridization

Figure 1 : Merging Technology

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MEOMS and commercial

applications

Attractive for comercial application

because of :

batch processing and embossed replication

enabling technology for applications that
cannot be addressed, using micro-optics
The trend toward miniaturization and
integration of conventional optical systems
desirable elements of optical
communication.

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What is the difference

between Optical MEMS and
? MOEMS

Optical MEMS could include bulk

optics but MOEMS is truly based
on microtechnology
where MOEMS devices are batched
processed exactly like integrated
circuits, but this is not true in most
cases for Optical MEMS.
Hamdy Fadl 500512011

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! Time for Applications

Hamdy Fadl 500512011

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Applications

Optical switch
Wave guide
Moving mirror
Diffractive grating
Microlens arrays
Microbolometers
Bistable Fabry Perot resonator for high
accuracy measurement of gas concentration
Micro-optical microphone to measure air
pressure.
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Optical Switch

Many optical components are required in the

rapid development of optical networks,
including optical switches.
Optical switches in micro-opto-electromechanical systems (MOEMS) have many
applications because of their excellent
features, including low insertion loss and
crosstalk.

In telecommunications, insertion loss is the loss

of signal power resulting from the insertion of a
device in a transmission line or optical fiber and is
usually expressed in decibels (dB).
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Optical Switch
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Then , what is Optical

?switch

In telecommunication, an optical
switch is a switch that enables signals
in optical fibers or integrated optical
circuits (IOCs) to be selectively switched
from one circuit to another.
Away from telecom, an optical switch is
the unit that actually switches light
between fibers
Fast optical switches, may be used to
perform logic operations.
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Example : 3D-MEMS Optical

Switch

In a MEMS optical switch, a micromirror is used to reflect a light

beam. The direction in which the
light beam is reflected can be
changed by rotating the mirror to
different angles, allowing the input
light to be connected to any output
port.
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3D-MEMS Optical Switch

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3D-MEMS Optical Switch

Features

Can switch optical signals without

converting them into electrical
signals.
Allows compact low-loss switches to
be formed on any scale.
Switching can be performed in 10-30
msec.
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3D-MEMS Optical Switch

usages

Since this device can switch large

numbers of optical signals
simultaneously,

it can be used as a trunk switch for

handling large amounts of traffic,
and as a switch in large urban
communication networks.

Hamdy Fadl 500512011

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Another Application :
Waveguide

A waveguide is a structure that

guides waves, such
as electromagnetic
waves or sound waves. There are
different types of waveguides for
each type of wave.

Hamdy Fadl 500512011

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Waveguide in MOEMS

Fiber-optic waveguides based

(MOEMS) form a significant class of
biosensors which have notable
advantages like

light weight,
low cost
and more importantly, the ability to
be integrated with bio-systems.
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Example :integrated microfluidic fiber-optic

waveguide biosensor .
The fiber-optic waveguide is integrated
with bulk micromachined fluidic channel
across which different chemical and
biological samples are passed through.
The significant refractive index* change
due to the presence of biological samples
that causes the evanescent field condition
in the waveguides leads to optical intensity
attenuation of the transmitted light.
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Representative image for

waveguide in biosensor

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Refractive index

In optics the refractive index or index of

refraction n of a substance (optical medium)
is a dimensionless number that describes
how light, or any other radiation, propagates
through that medium. It is defined as

n= c/v

where c is the speed of light in vacuum and v is

the speed of light in the substance.
For example, the refractive index of water is
1.33, meaning that light travels 1.33 times as
fast in vacuum as it does in water
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The speed of light

The speed of light in vacuum,

commonly denoted c, is a universal
physical constant.
Its value is 299,792,458 meters
per second

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Speed of light

Sunlight takes about 8 minutes 19 seconds to reach

.the Earth (based on the average distance)
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Micro lenses

Microlens is a small lens, generally

with a diameter less than a
millimetre (mm) and often as small
as 10 micrometres (m).
The small sizes of the lenses
means that a simple design can
give good optical quality
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Micro lens and Microlens

Array
Single microlenses are used to couple light
to optical fibres
while microlens arrays are often used to
increase the light collection efficiency of
CCD arrays. They collect and focus light
that would have otherwise fallen on to the
non-sensitive areas of the CCD*.
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*A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a device for the

movement of electrical charge, usually from within
the device to an area where the charge can be
manipulated, for example conversion into a digital
value.
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Microlens in Digital Camera

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Applications of Microlenses

Microlens arrays are in digital projectors, to

focus light to the active areas of the LCD
used to generate the image to be projected.
Current research :microlenses act as
concentrators for high efficiency
photovoltaics for electricity production.
Form compact imaging devices for
applications such as photocopiers and
mobile-phone cameras.
3D imaging and displays
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3D imaging Display

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MOEMS packaging

Encapsulation of electronics and sensors

has traditionally been used as a
protection against the outside
environment, but through integration of
other functions (e.g. lenses, electric and
optic conductors)
Advanced polymer technique has the
potential to realize multifunctional
encapsulation in combination with 3Dsilicon technique and surface technology.
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THANK YOU

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