SWS Licenses Spectrometer Tech to Hamamatsu Photonics

Si-Ware Systems (SWS) has licensed its microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer technology to Hamamatsu Photonics of Japan for use in a new device announced last month.

The FTIR spectrometer is the first single-chip spectrometer; all of the device’s optical components are monolithically integrated onto one 1 x 1-cm chip using SWS’s proprietary silicon integrated micro-optical system technology (SiMOST), a complete platform that provides alignment-free optics and enables the creation of monolithic optical systems using validated MEMS components. Multiple optical MEMS structures can be patterned and etched on silicon-on-insulator wafers using deep-reactive ion etching. The structures are then wafer-level packaged and diced to create a one-chip optical system.

Additional components of the system include a photodetector, optical fiber and software.

“The single-chip spectrometer now opens up many more possibilities for portable spectrometry, enabling the move from bulky and costly equipment in a laboratory to compact and inexpensive equipment in the field,” said Bassam Saadany, SWS’s Optical MEMS Technology division manager. “SWS’s single-chip spectrometer allows for the realization of a spectrometer in a handheld device such as a mobile handset.”

For more information, visit: www.si-ware.com