Apparatus and method providing a hand-held spectrometer

Abstract

According to one aspect, an IR spectrometer includes a light source adapted to illuminate a sample, a grating adapted to spectrally disperse a light that has illuminated the sample, a MEMS array adapted to be electrostatically actuated by a controller to control a diffraction of the light, a detector configured to detect the light, and a power source adapted to supply power to the light source and to the MEMS array, wherein the controller is adapted to control the MEMS array so as to manage a power consumption of the IR spectrometer. In one embodiment, the IR spectrometer includes a housing sized and arranged to house the light source, the grating, the MEMS array, the controller, the detector, and the power source in a hand-held device.

1 . An IR spectrometer comprising: 
 a light source adapted to illuminate a sample with light;    a grating adapted to spectrally disperse the light that has illuminated the sample to provide a dispersed light;    a MEMS array adapted to be actuated by a controller to control a diffraction of the dispersed light to provide a plurality of wavelengths of light;    a detector configured to detect the plurality of wavelengths of light; and    wherein the controller is adapted to control the MEMS array so as to manage a power consumption of the MEMS array and is further adapted to control the MEMS array so as to diffract the plurality of wavelengths of light.    
   
   
       2 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , further comprising a switched voltage array responsive to the controller and coupled to the MEMS array.  
   
   
       3 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the MEMS array includes a plurality of grating elements, and wherein the controller is adapted to provide at least one signal to control an operation of one or more of the grating elements.  
   
   
       4 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the controller and the MEMS array are configured so as to control the MEMS array to draw substantially zero current when the MEMS array is in a static state.  
   
   
       5 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the detector is configured to be cooled with less than one watt of power.  
   
   
       6 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , further comprising a driver circuit, responsive to the controller, the driver circuit adapted to control an operation of the light source to minimize a power consumption of the light source.  
   
   
       7 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 6 , wherein the controller controls the driver circuit so that the power consumption of the light source is less than 3 Watts.  
   
   
       8 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the operation of at least the MEMS array and the light source of the IR spectrometer so that an average power consumption of the IR spectrometer when in use is less than 5 Watts.  
   
   
       9 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , further comprising a probe that includes the light source.  
   
   
       10 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the probe is configured to provide the light to the sample and receive the light from the illuminated sample.  
   
   
       11 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , further comprising a lithium ion battery power source.  
   
   
       12 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the IR spectrometer comprises a connector configured to connect to an AC power cord.  
   
   
       13 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the detector includes a photodiode.  
   
   
       14 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 13 , wherein the detector further includes a transimpedance amplifier and an Analog to Digital converter.  
   
   
       15 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the MEMS array such that the spectrometer is adapted to be operated as a scanning monochromator.  
   
   
       16 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the MEMS array such that the spectrometer is adapted to be operated as a filter-wheel spectrometer.  
   
   
       17 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the MEMS array such that the spectrometer is adapted to be operated as a Hadamard transform spectrometer.  
   
   
       18 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , further comprising a housing sized and arranged to be held in a hand and to house the light source, the grating, the MEMS array, the controller, and the detector.  
   
   
       19 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 18 , wherein the IR spectrometer is configured to be less than 5 pounds.  
   
   
       20 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to identify the sample material from the light that is reflected from the sample.  
   
   
       21 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , further comprising a data interface coupled to the controller and wherein the controller and data interface are configured to transfer data from the spectrometer to a remote processor.  
   
   
       22 . The IR spectrometer of  claim 1 , wherein the spectrometer is configured to operate over a wavelength range of less than about 2400 nm.  
   
   
       23 . An IR spectrometer comprising: 
 a light source adapted to illuminate a sample with light;    a grating adapted to spectrally disperse a light that has illuminated the sample to provide a dispersed light;    a MEMS array adapted to be electrostatically actuated by a controller to control a diffraction of the dispersed light;    a detector configured to detect the dispersed light; and    a battery power source adapted to supply power to the light source and to the MEMS array, wherein the controller is adapted to control the MEMS array so as to manage a power consumption of the IR spectrometer.