New Micro Devices

Fifteen papers in a special section of the SPIE Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS(JM³) explore emerging MOEMS technology used in space telescopes, telecommunications, biomedical imaging, chemical detection, and other applications.

The special section, “Emerging MOEMS Technology and Applications,” covers micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems technology and applications in adaptive optics, digital micro-mirror devices, and MOEMS miniaturized systems.

The papers include two open-access articles, one from researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) on wavefront control with MEMS deformable mirrors, and the other by German researchers who conducted a cryogenic test on a unimorph-type deformable mirror.

The special section includes outstanding new results in commercial R&D in photonics where micro-optics and MEMS are merged, said SPIE Fellow M. Edward Motamedi, a guest editor. “As a result of this merger, innovative breakthrough devices are coming to light,” he said.

Among the 15 papers are four articles on digital mirror devices (DMD), three on microscanning applications, three on adaptive optics, and others on 3D profiling, focusing micromirrors, Fabry Perot filters, and micromachined spectrum analyzers.

Researchers from Los Alamos National Lab (USA) authored two of the papers, and scientists at three different divisions of the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany contributed three papers.

 The technology covered in the special section is well-suited to meet needs now and in the future, Motamedi said.

"Recent demands for emerging miniature components for optical communication, digital imaging, sensors and actuators, wireless systems, and adaptive optics that are low-cost with high performance and high reliability have led researchers to consider batch processing in high-cleanroom environments to be the only solution," he said.

"And MEMS, MOEMS, and micro-optics all have a foundation of integrated circuits and involve batch processing in cleanrooms."

Motamedi also praised the work of his co-editors, each of whom chairs a conference at SPIE Photonics West, for assembling the collection.

Co-editors are Joel Kubby of University of California, Santa Cruz (USA); SPIE member Patrick Ian Oden of Texas Instruments (USA); and SPIE Senior Member Wibool Piyawattanametha, director of the Advanced Imaging Research Center at Chulalongkorn University (Thailand).

Motamedi, an executive at Revoltech Microsystems (USA), is founding chair of the MOEMS-MEMS Symposium, and a JM³ senior editor.

Most SPIE journals publish special sections on topical areas throughout the year.

The Journal of Applied Remote Sensing is seeking papers for a special section on high-performance computing in remote sensing for environmental, commercial, or military applications.

This section will explore computational aspects of remote sensing related to mathematical models, quantitative-analysis techniques, and numerical methods that will lead to improvements in remote-sensing data and products. Manuscripts are due 1 June.

The Journal of Photonics for Energy seeks papers by 1 July for a special section on nanophotonics and plasmonics for solar-energy harvesting and conversion. Other special sections will cover organic and hybrid solar cells.

Manuscripts are due 1 July also for a special section in the Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS and MOEMS on continued scaling of optical and complementary lithography.

Neurophotonics will have a special section on causal control of biological systems with light. Manuscripts are due 1 August.

Manuscripts are due 1 October for another special section in Neurophotonics, honoring Lawrence Cohen of Yale University (USA) and the Korean Institute of Science and Technology.

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