Measuring in-plane and out-of-plane coupled motions of microstructures by stroboscopic microscopic interferometry

A stroboscopic Mirau microscopic interferometer system for measuring in-plane and out-of-plane periodic motions of microstructures is demonstrated. One full cycle of a periodic motion is divided into a number of motion phases. One sequence of interferograms with different phase shifting steps is collected at every motion phase by using stroboscopic imaging. A bright-field image can be extracted from one sequence of interferograms with the same motion phase. In-plane displacements are measured by applying an image matching method to all bright-field images, followed by a compensation for the relative positions of interferograms at the different motion phases, before calculating the phase distribution related to out-of-plane deformation. We demonstrate its capability for measuring a combination of out-of-plane deformation and in-plane displacement in a microresonator. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.