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US 2002/0162947 A1Published application
Mechanical sensors of electromagnetic fields
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsDaniel P. Weitekamp, Bruce Lambert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Sensing devices and techniques based on motion of a mechanical oscillator caused by electromagnetic interaction, such as a magnetic polarization with a magnetic field or an electric polarization with an electric field.
Claims30
A device, comprising:
- a micro mechanical oscillator exhibiting an electromagnetic polarization;
- a circuit unit located adjacent to said micro oscillator to produce a temporally-changing electromagnetic signal in the space where said micro mechanical oscillator is located, wherein said electromagnetic polarization interacts with said electromagnetic signal to cause said micro mechanical oscillator to move;
- and
- a motion detection module to measure motion of said micro mechanical oscillator to produce a motion signal indicating a property of said electromagnetic signal.
1 more element
A device, comprising:
- a vacuum chamber under a vacuum condition;
- a sample holder having a sample tray which has a depression and an aperture in said depression, and a membrane formed on said sample tray to form a vacuum seal on said aperture, said sample holder engaged to a portion of said vacuum chamber so that said aperture is not in said vacuum chamber and a side of said membrane opposing said aperture is under said vacuum condition, wherein said sample tray holds a sample in said depression;
- a laser to produce a modulated laser beam to illuminate said sample tray to induce a sample polarization in the sample;
- a micro mechanical oscillator in said vacuum chamber having a probe which exhibits a static probe polarization and is located close to said aperture to interact with said sample polarization to cause a motion of said micro mechanical oscillator;
- a motion detection module to measure said motion of said micro mechanical oscillator to produce a motion signal;
- and
- a processing unit receiving and processing said motion signal to produce an image or to measure a property of the sample.
4 more elements
A device, comprising:
- a substrate;
- a circuit at least partially formed on said substrate, said circuit having first and second electrodes formed over said substrate and spaced from each other to receive a temporally-changing electromagnetic signal;
- and
- a micro mechanical oscillator exhibiting an electromagnetic polarization and formed on said substrate between, and without contact with, said first and said second electrodes to expose to an electromagnetic field of said temporally-changing electromagnetic signal, wherein said electromagnetic polarization interacts with said electromagnetic field to cause said micro mechanical oscillator to oscillate and to cause a frequency-dependent impedance between said first and said second electrodes.
1 more element
A method, comprising:
- exposing a micro mechanical oscillator exhibiting an electromagnetic polarization to a temporally-changing electromagnetic signal so that said electromagnetic polarization interacts with said electromagnetic signal to cause said micro mechanical oscillator to move;
- and
- measuring a motion of said micro mechanical oscillator due to said interaction to produce a motion signal indicating a property of said electromagnetic signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.