An imaging systen based on a single MEMS scanner and photodetector

Abstract

Design and implementation of an imaging system based on a single Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) electrothermal scanner and a single photodetector is described in this paper. The 2-axis electrothermal driven MEMS scanner is used to scan the demagnified object across the photodetector. A pinhole is placed in front of the photodetector for spatially filtering the light, and defines the pixel size of the image. An image is constructed by assembling readings from the photodetector corresponding to scan position of the MEMS scanner. As this imaging setup only employs one detector, the aim of this research is to greatly reduce the cost of traditional configuration where large photodetector array is used, especially for long wavelength applications, such as infrared and terahertz. The preliminary optical setup has been realized and some image results have been obtained.