Optical apparatus and methods and computer program products useful for manufacturing same

A method for manufacturing optical apparatus, the method comprising:

• pre-preparing MEMS chips, without any QWP coating, including manufacturing a stock of optical MEMS elements, and
• subsequently, according to customers' needs, adding QWP coatings to the MEMS chips as pre-prepared, wherein said adding includes, for at least first and second orders O1 and O2 respectively, from among a stream of orders, each order requiring a specific number of devices having a given number G of optical elements and having specific requirements in terms of active optical coatings required:
• selecting G1 diced optical mems elements E1, from the stock, each of which include N1 optical elements where N1 is the number of optical elements required by order O1;
• depositing active optical coatings that achieve requirements of said order O1, atop each of the diced optical MEMS elements E1 selected from the stock for order O1, thereby to fill order O1;
• electing G2 diced optical mems elements E2, from the stock, each of which include N2 optical elements where N2 is the number of optical elements required by order O2;
• and
• depositing active optical coatings that achieve requirements of said order O2, atop each of the diced optical mems elements E2 selected from the stock for order O2, thereby to fill order O2,
• wherein at least one active optical coating comprises a QWP coating.

An optical apparatus comprising:

• a stock of optical MEMS elements, without any QWP coating, to which, subsequently, has been added, according to customers' needs, QWP coatings, the stock including:
• diced optical mems elements E1 selected from the stock, each of which elements E1 includes N1 optical elements where N1 is the number of optical elements required by an order O1, and active optical coatings that achieve requirements of said order O1, are deposited atop each of the diced optical MEMS elements El to fill order O1;
• and
• diced optical mems elements E2 selected from the stock, each of which elements E2 includes N2 optical elements where N2 is the number of optical elements required by an order O2;
• and active optical coatings that achieve requirements of said order O2, are deposited atop each of the diced optical MEMS elements E2 to fill order O2,
• wherein at least one of said active optical coatings comprises a QWP coating.