Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering2024-11-0920060960-131710.1088/0960-1317/16/12/0012-s2.0-33846049579http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/16/12/001https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14288/13050The design, fabrication and characterization of a novel out-of-plane vertical comb-drive actuator based lamellar grating interferometer (LGI) is reported. The interferometer utilizes resonant mode vertical comb actuators, where comb fingers are simultaneously used for actuation and as a movable diffraction grating, making the device very compact. The Fourier transform of the zeroth order intensity pattern as a function of the optical path difference gives the spectrum of light. The main advantages offered by the proposed device are a long travel range (i.e. good spectral resolution), a large clear aperture (i.e. high light efficiency), and a very simple, robust and compact spectrometer structure. Peak-to-peak 106 mu m out-of-plane deflection is observed in ambient pressure and at 28 V, corresponding to a theoretical spectral resolution of about 0.4 nm in the visible band and 3.6 nm at 1.5 mu m. A simple CMOS compatible process based on bulk micromachining of a silicon-on-insulator wafer is used for the device fabrication.EngineeringElectrical electronic engineeringNanoscienceNanotechnologyInstrumentsInstrumentationPhysics, Applied physicsJournal Article1361-6439242475200001Q3480