Single Camera Measurement of Out of Plane (OoP) Displacement

In this paper we propose a method which is useful to measure out of plane displacement of beams. The proposed method is targeted to be effective in micro fabrication applications where a speckle pattern is impossible to make on the microactuators. However, microfabrication techniques where etch holes are used to release actuator beams can make use of this method. The paper presents the application of image processing techniques that can be exploited to measure effective in-plane pixel displacement for a corresponding out of plane (vertical) beam displacements. Firstly, a calibration measurement is taken at known beam deflections. Secondly, beam deflection at various unknown points can be extracted. Lastly, a profile of the beam deflection along its length can be achieved for any deflection.