Electromagnetic Digital Microactuators Remote Control by a Parallel Dual Wavelength Optical Communication System

Abstract : In this paper, a parallel dual wavelength optical communication channel is presented. A custom optical sensor based on a double Fabry-Perot structure is described. It allows the system to instantaneously demultiplex the incident wavelengths as well as offers noise rejection, such as ambient light. It allows sending two bits in only one pulse of light. Contrary to other optical approaches, the presented approach differs in that it uses a wide optical spectrum and only inexpensive electronics. The usefulness of this free space, point-to-point, communication channel is demonstrated in the remote control of an electromagnetic digital microactuator. Thanks to a proper algorithm in the receiver, the proposed system is able to control all the degrees of freedom of the microactuator with a movement for every pulse of light.