MEMS devices for signal processing

摘要

The principle of optical actuation of arrays of micromechanical cantilevers has widespread applications in optical signal processing. The paper demonstrates that, depending on the configuration and operating mode of the micromechanical cantilever array, optical actuation can be used to design broadband detectors, optical computing units for addition, integration or differentiation of optical signals, to implement devices that can measure simultaneously the wavelength and the optical power of a laser source with constant efficiency from UV to FIR, or to determine the amplitude and phase profile of an incident light beam. Moreover, an array of optically actuated biased cantilevers can work as an optical data storage device that encodes arrays of optical pixels (images) with a predetermined number of gray levels.