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OCT instruments permit fast and non-invasive 3D optical biopsies of biological tissues. However, they are bulky and expensive, making them only affordable at the hospital and thus, not sufficiently used as an early diagnostic tool. Significant reduction of system cost and size is achieved by implementation of MOEMS technologies. We propose an active array of 4x4 Mirau microinterferometers where the reference micro-mirrors are carried by a vertical comb-drive microactuator, enabling the implementation of the phase-shifting technique that improves the sensitivity and eliminates unwanted interferometric terms. We focus on the design of the imaging system, the microfabrication and the assembly of the Mirau microinterferometer, and the swept-source OCT imaging.

In the rapid evolution of gastrointestinal endomicroscopy, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has found many diverse applications. Until recently, the micro-opto–electro-mechanical systems (MOEMS) technology has been playing a key role in shaping the miniaturization of these components. We report here, to the best of our knowledge, a novel endoscopic microsystem. It is based on a spectrally tuned MOEMS Mirau micro-interferometer integrated with micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) electro-thermal micro-scanner, operating in the regime of swept-source (SS) OCT imaging. This Letter validates our initial proof-of-concept toward the development of such MOEMS probe and the presentation of experimental performances of the resulting SS-OCT microsystem.