Honeywell G.m.b.h.

James D Zook

David W Burns

Thomas R Ohnstein

Henry Guckel

Paul Eugene Bauhahn

Enrique Bernal G

Barry G Koepke

Di Chen

The present invention relates to microstructures fabricated from semiconductor material and having a flexible member which is excited into various modes of resonance and in which such resonance is read optically. By coupling the microstructure to a surface or material of interest, a drive means will excite the flexible member into a characteristic resonance which when read optically gives indication of certain physical phenomena influencing the surface or material of interest. The microstructures of the present invention may be configured to self-resonate, as a so-called active device, under certain conditions. Many different physical phenomena may be quantified using the device of the present invention.

Opto-electro-mechanical device or filter, process for making, and

A microstructure device having a array of deep lamellar structures resembling parallel plates has sharp high pass cut-off behavior associated with incident TE polarized radiation. When two such microstructures are disposed in an orthogonal orientation, they act like a 2-D array of rectangular waveguides with the cut-off behavior determined by the separation of the respective parallel plates. Another embodiment of the present invention employs a linear drive to articulate the array of coupled parallel plates to tune the filter to the operative incident radiation relatively independent of the angle of incidence. The microstructure finds application placed proximate the focal plane of an array of radiation sensitive material so that very high resolution multispectral images may be generated. When the array is articulated by a linear actuator, a preselected cut-off frequency may be tuned so that multispectral imaging occurs independent of the imaging technology employed, with applications for remote sensing of chemical agents, satellite surveys of agricultural resources, meteorological conditions, or environmental quality. When disposed in a gas absorption cell, opposing an IR source and proximate an IR detector the tunable filter can be used for gas analysis.

High pass optical filter

A resonant strain gauge includes a silicon substrate, a polysilicon flexure beam attached at both ends to the substrate, and a polysilicon rigid cover cooperating with the substrate to enclose the flexure beam within a sealed vacuum chamber. An upper bias electrode is formed on the cover, and a lower bias electrode is formed on the substrate directly beneath and spaced apart from the flexure beam. A drive electrode is formed in or on the beam, centered between the upper and lower bias electrodes transversely with respect to the direction of beam elongation. The upper and lower electrodes are biased at constant voltage levels, of equal magnitude and opposite polarity. The drive electrode, ordinarily biased at ground, is selectively charged by applying an oscillating drive voltage, to cause mechanical oscillation of the beam. A piezoresistor element, formed on the beam, senses beam oscillation and provides a position indicating input to the oscillator circuit that drives the beam. The beam tends to oscillate at its natural resonant frequency. The piezoresistor thus provides the natural resonant frequency to the oscillating circuit, adjusting the frequency of the beam drive signal toward coincidence with the natural resonant frequency. A shield electrode can be formed on the flexure beam between the piezoresistor and the drive electrode, to insure against parasitic capacitance. In alternative embodiments, the drive signal is applied to one of the bias electrodes to oscillate the beam, and beam oscillation is sensed capacitively.

Resonant gauge with microbeam driven in constant electric field

Optical waveguides are fabricated by heating a region of a body of flat filter glass with an energy beam such as a scanning focused laser beam. The region is locally heated to a temperature at which softening occurs. Upon cooling two differing effects occur, the two effects causing a 'W' shaped index of refraction profile. The first effect is the photoelastic effect due to the residual stress introduced as the heated material cools and contracts. The residual tensile stress is constant in the softened region, but decreases as the distance from the center of the heating increases. Since the density and therefore the refractive index of this region is inversely proportional to the residual stress, this effect resulted in a local refractive index minimum. The other effect is the material density change in the softened region. As the cooling rate is small in the center and large in the edge of this softened region, a density change occurs with the center attaining the highest value and decrease towards the edge. The refractive index change due to this effect is proportional to the density and therefore resulted in a peak. The combined result of these two effects produces a 'W' shape refractive index profile.

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Minneapolis, MN, United States of America

James D Zook