Micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems: recent developments and LETI's activities

The spectacular growth in MOEMS interest is highlighted by the involvement of R&D centres and industrial companies. A lot of application fields offer large opportunities for Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MOEMS) : optical communications (switches, cross-connect matrix, DWDM systems . .), digital image processing, adaptive optics .. . but also industrial maintenance, environment, medicine, .. . After general ideas on MEMS and MOEMS, this paper presents the main application fields for MOEMS and a few outstanding devices are presented to illustrate the recent developments. Then the work of LETI in MOEMS is presented. Some devices are fabricated with MEMS technologies such as tunable Fabry-Perot interferometers for DWDM telecommunications or 2D micro-scanners for obstacle detection. But a more specific technology has also been developed by LETI, resulting in devices made of silica such as 1D micro-scanners for obstacle detection. Moreover some devices are constituted of micro-mechanical structures combined with Integrated Optics : microswitches for protection applications and network reconfiguration in optical communications, micro-vibration sensor for surveillance of rotating machines in electrical generators...