A spectrometer device includes a Fabry-Perot interferometer unit, which comprises a first carrier substrate, wherein the first carrier substrate is arranged on a lower side of the Fabry-Perot interferometer unit and includes an optical aperture. The spectrometer includes at least one of a first substrate, which is arranged on an upper side of the Fabry-Perot interferometer unit, which faces away from the lower side, and a second substrate with the first carrier substrate arranged with the lower side on the second substrate. The spectrometer further includes a photodetector device arranged on or in the at least one of the second substrate and the first substrate. A first electrical connection region of the photodetector device and a second electrical connection region of the Fabry-Perot interferometer unit are electrically contacted from the same direction.

An IR radiator element (1) suitable for use as a miniature infrared emitter (micro-hotplate) in a gas sensor, IR-spectrometer or electron microscope. The micro-hotplate comprises a plate (2) supported by multiple support arms (4). The plate and arms are fabricated as a MEMS device comprising a single contiguous piece of electrically-conducting refractory ceramic such as hafnium carbide (HfC) or tantalum hafnium carbide (TaHfC). Each of the arms (4), in addition to providing structural cantilever support for the plate (2), acts as a heating element for the plate (2). The plate (2) is heated by applying a voltage across the arms (4). The arms (4) may also be shaped to absorb thermomechanical stress which arises during the heating and cooling of the arms and plate. The plate, which may have an area of less than 0.05 mm.sup.2 and a thickness of between 1% and 10% of the largest dimension of the plate (2), for example, can be heated to 4,000 K or more and cooled again with a duty cycle of as little 0.5 ms, thereby permitting pulsed operation at frequencies of up to 2 kHz. Its small size (10-200 μm) and low power consumption (e.g. 10-100 mW) make the micro-hotplate suitable for use in cryogenic applications, in miniaturized devices or in battery-powered devices such as mobile phones.

A spectroscopic module includes a plurality of beam splitters that are arranged along an X direction; a plurality of bandpass filters disposed on one side in a Z direction with respect to the plurality of beam splitters facing the plurality of beam splitters, respectively; a light detector disposed on the one side in the Z direction with respect to the plurality of bandpass filters and including a plurality of light receiving regions facing the plurality of bandpass filters, respectively; a first support body supporting the plurality of beam splitters; and a second support body supporting the plurality of bandpass filters. The second support body includes a support portion in which a support surface is formed so as to be open to the one side in the Z direction. The plurality of bandpass filters are disposed on the support surface.

Building blocks are provided for on-chip chemical sensors and other highly-compact photonic integrated circuits combining interband or quantum cascade lasers and detectors with passive waveguides and other components integrated on a III-V or silicon. A MWIR or LWIR laser source is evanescently coupled into a passive extended or resonant-cavity waveguide that provides evanescent coupling to a sample gas (or liquid) for spectroscopic chemical sensing. In the case of an ICL, the uppermost layer of this passive waveguide has a relatively high index of refraction that enables it to form the core of the waveguide, while the ambient air, consisting of the sample gas, functions as the top cladding layer. A fraction of the propagating light beam is absorbed by the sample gas if it contains a chemical species having a fingerprint absorption feature within the spectral linewidth of the laser emission.

A spectrometer comprises a plurality of isolated optical channels comprising a plurality of isolated optical paths. The isolated optical paths decrease cross-talk among the optical paths and allow the spectrometer to have a decreased length with increased resolution. In many embodiments, the isolated optical paths comprise isolated parallel optical paths that allow the length of the device to be decreased substantially. In many embodiments, each isolated optical path extends from a filter of a filter array, through a lens of a lens array, through a channel of a support array, to a region of a sensor array. Each region of the sensor array comprises a plurality of sensor elements in which a location of the sensor element corresponds to the wavelength of light received based on an angle of light received at the location, the focal length of the lens and the central wavelength of the filter.

In an embodiment an optoelectronic apparatus includes a light detector having a bottom side, an upper side and at least one sidewall that extends between the upper side and the bottom side, a carrier having an upper surface on which the light detector is arranged such that the bottom side faces the carrier, at least one outer wall which is arranged on the surface of the carrier, the outer wall and the carrier forming a cavity with an opening in which the light detector resides, a filter covering the upper side of the light detector, the filter having a first threshold wavelength separating a first wavelength region from an adjacent second wavelength region, wherein the filter has a lower transmittance for light at wavelengths in the first wavelength region than for light at wavelengths in the second wavelength region and a first material layer covering the filter.

Building blocks are provided for on-chip chemical sensors and other highly-compact photonic integrated circuits combining interband or quantum cascade lasers and detectors with passive waveguides and other components integrated on a III-V or silicon. A MWIR or LWIR laser source is evanescently coupled into a passive extended or resonant-cavity waveguide that provides evanescent coupling to a sample gas (or liquid) for spectroscopic chemical sensing. In the case of an ICL, the uppermost layer of this passive waveguide has a relatively high index of refraction that enables it to form the core of the waveguide, while the ambient air, consisting of the sample gas, functions as the top cladding layer. A fraction of the propagating light beam is absorbed by the sample gas if it contains a chemical species having a fingerprint absorption feature within the spectral linewidth of the laser emission.

A MEMS hotplate is used as a test substrate for characterizing a temperature-dependent fabrication process. According to a variant, an array of MEMS hotplates is used to provide multiple test substrates which can be simultaneously heated to different temperatures to provide multiple different temperature-dependent characterizations of the process.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to an integrated spectral unit including a micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) interferometer fabricated within a first substrate and a light redirecting structure integrated on a second substrate, where the second substrate is coupled to the first substrate. The light redirecting structure includes at least one mirror for receiving an input light beam propagating in an out-of-plane direction with respect to the first substrate and redirecting the input light beam to an in-plane direction with respect to the first substrate towards the MEMS interferometer.

A spectral camera for producing a spectral output is disclosed. The spectral camera has an objective lens for producing an image, an array of mirrors, an array of filters for passing a different passband of the optical spectrum for different ones of the optical channels arranged so as to project multiple of the optical channels onto different parts of the same focal plane, and a sensor array at the focal plane to detect the filtered image copies simultaneously. By using mirrors, there may be less optical degradation and the trade off of cost with optical quality can be better. By projecting the optical channels onto different parts of the same focal plane a single sensor or coplanar multiple sensors can to be used to detect the different optical channels simultaneously which promotes simpler alignment and manufacturing.