New temporal phase-shifting technique utilizing stroboscopy for static characterization of microstructures

A new method of temporal phase shifting, utilizing the principle of stroboscopic interferometry for surface characterization of micro structures is presented. This method involves acquiring four unknown but equal phase shifted images of the vibrating micro structures. In order to demonstrate this method of temporal phase shifting, a MicraGem torsional micromirror was used for the experiment. The surface-height information of the micromirror using this method was compared with the outcome of analysis of the same micromirror using a commercial profiler. Excellent agreement between the results of two different analyses, verifies the accuracy of presented method of phase-shifting. Further work was done using proposed method on a MicraGem cantilever to explore the curvature due to residual stress.