SBIR Phase I: Microscale Interferometric Sensor for High Speed MEMS Metrology

This SBIR Phase I project investigate the scientific and technical feasibility of an innovative micromachined optical interferometer as a quality control tool for MEMS production. One of the barriers to the growth of MEMS both as an enabling technology and as a new market is quality control. Quality control not only provides quality assurance but also it provides feedback to optimize the design, fabrication and assembly processes involved. The proposed microscale position sensing grating interferometer (uPSGI) with electrostatically actuated grating is itself microfabricated and integrated with optoelectronics. It measures the displacement of MEMS with high resolution (sub-nm) and bandwidth (> MHz). In this project, a uPSGI with movable grating will be fabricated and integrated into a microscope objective. The performance of the interferometric will be tested on dynamic MEMS devices and the feasibility of parallel array operation will be evaluated. The proposed technology converts the large-scale interferometric metrology system to a miniature sensor using a patented technology. It can be tailored for specific needs of MEMS manufacturers to reduce manufacturing costs, lead-time and waste of material and to increase product reliability. Potential customers include all the MEMS manufacturing companies.