Micro-Optical-Electro-Mechanical Devices

In recent years techniques of micromachining, such as ion-beam sputtering, plasma sputtering and selective chemical etching, have been developed to the point that it is now possible to fabricate mechanical microstructures monolithically on the same chip as electronic and optical devices. This has lead to a new class of integrated devices or circuits, which are called micro-opto-electro-mechanical devices or systems (MOEMs). Since this acronym is some what unwieldy, and since micro-electro-mechanical devices (MEMs) were developed before those including optical elements, the latter acronym is often used for both types of devices. Quite a few different types of MOEMs or MEMs have been fabricated to perform a wide variety of functions. Generally they can be divided into three different classes, sensors, actuators and optical elements. Examples of devices in each class are given in Table 19.1