A genetic optical interferometric inspection on micro-deformation

Abstract

This paper describes a feasibility study of an optical method for measuring nanoscale deformation of micro-components that are commonly employed in the field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Both theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that an optical interference fringe pattern resulted from an air gap consisting of two surfaces (object and reference surfaces) is a simple function of the deformation of the micro-component. A microscopic system incorporating a coaxial monochromatic light illumination and a high resolution CCD sensor is utilized to record the interference fringe pattern. The experimental results on different micro-components show that the proposed technique is applicable to the deformation measurement on micro-components of MEMS devices.