General Electric Company

Ge Homeland Protection, Inc.

Morpho Detection, Inc.

Long Que

Glenn Scott Claydon

Anis Zribi

Stacey Joy Kennerly

Shivappa Ningappa Goravar

Shankar Chandrasekaran

Ayan Banerjee

David Cecil Hays

Sandip Maity

Christopher Fred Keimel

William James Premerlani

Edward K Howell

Kanakasabapathi Subramanian

John Norton Park

Xuefeng Wang

Jeffrey Bernard Fortin

Victor Donald Samper

Marko Klaus Baller

Min-Yi Shih

Kuna Venkat Satya Rama Kishore

Todd Ryan Tolliver

Liming Yu

Joshua Isaac Wright

Sheila Tandon

Zhiyong Wang

Dirk Lange

Willam Scott Sutherland

Ayan Banerjec

Abhijeet Dinkar Sathe

Shankar (nmn) Chandrasekaran

Edward Keith Howell

According to one embodiment, a micro-electrical mechanical system apparatus includes (i) a comb drive actuator having at least one irregularly shaped finger and (ii) a movable Fabry-Perot filter cavity mirror coupled to the comb drive actuator. According to some embodiments, a relationship between a voltage applied to the comb drive actuator and an amount of displacement associated with the movable mirror is substantially linear.

Irregularly shaped actuator fingers for a micro-electromechanical system fabry-perot filter

A system and method for managing optical power for controlling thermal alteration of a sample undergoing spectroscopic analysis is provided. The system includes a moveable laser beam generator for irradiating the sample and a beam shaping device for moving and shaping the laser beam to prevent thermal overload or build up in the sample. The moveable laser beam generator includes at least one beam shaping device selected from the group consisting of at least one optical lens, at least one optical diffractor, at least one optical path difference modulator, at least one moveable mirror, at least one Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) integrated circuit (IC), and/or a liquid droplet. The system also includes an at least two degree of freedom (2 DOF) moveable substrate platform and a controller for controlling the laser beam generator and the substrate platform, and for analyzing light reflected from the sample.

System and method for optical power management

Disclosed herein is a plasmonics platform comprising a substrate; a plurality of periodically spaced nanoholes and/or nanoparticles disposed upon the substrate; wherein the average first order of periodicity between the nanoholes and/or the nanoparticles is about 5 to about 1,000 nm; and a microelectromechanical and/or a nanoelectromechanical system in operative communication with the substrate so as to vary the average first order of periodicity between the nanoholes and/or the nanoparticles.

Dynamic plasmonics-enabled signal enhancement, a device comprising the same, and a method using the same

A method of Raman detection for a portable, integrated spectrometer instrument includes directing Raman scattered photons by a sample to an avalanche photodiode (APD), the APD configured to generate an output signal responsive to the intensity of the Raman scattered photons incident thereon. The output signal of the APD is amplified and passed through a discriminator so as to reject at least one or more of amplifier noise and dark noise. A number of discrete output pulses within a set operational range of the discriminator is counted so as to determine a number of photons detected by the APD.

Method and apparatus for improved signal to noise ratio in Raman signal detection for MEMS based spectrometers

According to one embodiment, a micro-electrical mechanical system apparatus includes first and second mirrors that define a cavity. Moreover, a photonic band-gap structure coats a surface of at least one of the first or second mirrors to improve reflectivity. Another embodiment includes a third mirror, wherein the second and third mirrors form a second cavity. The spaces between the mirrors might comprise, for example, a pair of Fabry-Perot filter cavities for a spectrometer.

Micro-electromechanical system Fabry-Perot filter mirrors

According to one embodiment, a micro-electrical mechanical system apparatus includes a bi-stable actuator and at least one movable Fabry-Perot filter cavity mirror coupled to the bi-stable actuator. The bi-stable actuator may be associated with a first latched position and a second latched position and may comprise, for example, a thermal device, an electrostatic device (e.g., a parallel plate or comb drive), or a magnetic device. According to some embodiments, a relationship between a voltage applied to an actuator of a Fabry-Perot filter and an amount of displacement associated with a movable mirror is substantially linear.

Actuator for micro-electromechanical system fabry-perot filter

An integrated spectrometer instrument, including an optical source formed on a chip, the optical source configured to generate an incident optical beam upon a sample to be measured. Collection optics formed on the chip are configured to receive a scattered optical beam from the sample, and filtering optics formed on the chip are configured to remove elastically scattered light from the scattered optical beam at a wavelength corresponding to the optical source. A tunable filter formed on the chip is configured to pass selected wavelengths of the scattered optical beam, and a photo detector device formed on the chip is configured to generate an output signal corresponding to the intensity of photons passed through the tunable filter.

Compact, hand-held raman spectrometer microsystem on a chip

A gating voltage control system and method are provided for electrostatically actuating a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) device, e.g., a MEMS switch. The device may comprise an electrostatically responsive actuator movable through a gap for actuating the device to a respective actuating condition corresponding to one of a first actuating condition (e.g., a closed switching condition) and a second actuating condition (e.g., an open switching condition). The gating voltage control system may comprise a drive circuit electrically coupled to a gate terminal of the device to apply a gating voltage. The gating voltage control system may further comprise a controller electrically coupled to the drive circuit to control the gating voltage applied to the gating terminal in accordance with a gating voltage control sequence. The gating voltage control sequence may comprise a first interval for ramping up the gating voltage to a voltage level for producing an electrostatic force sufficient to accelerate the actuator through a portion of the gap to be traversed by the actuator to reach a respective actuating condition. The gating voltage control sequence may further comprise a second interval for ramping down the gating voltage to a level sufficient to reduce the electrostatic force acting on the movable actuator. This allows reducing the amount of force at which the actuator engages a contact for establishing the first actuating condition, or avoiding an overshoot position of the actuator while reaching the second actuating condition.

Gating voltage control system and method for electrostatically actuating a micro-electromechanical device

A photonic crystal based collection probe is provided. The probe includes a photonic crystal configured to guide and condition a beam of Raman scattered photons. Further, the device includes a spectrograph in optical communication with the photonic crystal and configured to receive Raman scattering from the photonic crystal. The device may be employed in a Raman spectrometer system.

Collection probe for use in a Raman spectrometer system and methods of making and using the same

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Rexford, NY, United States of America

Long Que