Optical spectrometers and sensors have gained enormous importance in metrology and information technology, frequently involving the question of size, resolution, sensitivity, spectral range, efficiency, reliability, and cost. Nanomaterials and nanotechnological fabrication technologies have huge potential to enable an optimization between these demands, which in some cases are counteracting each other. This paper focuses on the visible and near infrared spectral range and on five types of optical sensors (optical spectrometers): classical grating-based miniaturized spectrometers, arrayed waveguide grating devices, static Fabry–Pérot (FP) filter arrays on sensor arrays, tunable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) FP filter arrays, and MEMS tunable photonic crystal filters. The comparison between this selection of concepts concentrates on (i) linewidth and resolution, (ii) required space for a selected spectral range, (iii) efficiency in using available light, and (iv) potential of nanoimprint for cost reduction and yield increase. The main part of this review deals with our own results in the field of static FP filter arrays and MEMS tunable FP filter arrays. In addition, technology for efficiency boosting to get more of the available light is demonstrated.

We report on the fabrication of miniaturized NIR spectrometers based on arrays of multiple Fabry-Pérot (FP) filters. The various cavities of different height are fabricated via a single patterning step using high resolution 3D nanoimprint technology. Today, low-cost patterning of extended cavity heights for NIR filters using the conventional spin-coated nanoimprint methodology is not available because of insufficient coating layers and low mobility of the resist materials to fill extended cavity structures. Our investigation focuses on reducing the technological effort for fabrication of homogeneous extended cavities. We study alternative cavity designs, including a new resist and apply large-area 3D nanoimprint based on hybrid mold and UV Substrate Conformal Imprint Lithography (UV-SCIL) to overcome these limitations. We compare three different solutions, i.e. (1) applying multiple spin coating of the resist to obtain thicker initial resist layers, (2) introducing a hybrid cavity (combination of a thin oxide layer and the organic cavity) to compensate the height differences, and (3) optimizing the imprint process with a novel resist material. The imprint results based on these methods demonstrate the implementation of NIR FP filters with high transmission intensity (best single filter transmission >90 %) and small line widths (<5 nm in full width at half maximum).

Miniaturized spectrometers can be implemented using Fabry–Pérot (FP) filter arrays. Such filters are defined by two parallel mirrors with a resonance cavity in between. For high optical quality, ion beam sputtered distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), with alternating high and low refractive index material pairs, can be used as the FP mirrors; while 3D nanoimprint technology provides an efficient way of implementing multiple organic FP cavities of different heights in a single step. However, the high residual stress in ion beam sputtered films results in poor adhesion between the DBR films and the organic polymer cavities, causing debonding of the DBR. Therefore, the residual stress of the ion beam sputtered films forming the DBRs must be reduced. Niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) are used as the DBR materials in this work due to their high index contrast, resulting in high reflectivity for only a few alternating pairs. Stress relaxation in ion beam sputtered Nb2O5 and SiO2 films is achieved in this work by deposition under simultaneous high energy ion bombardment (oxygen and argon gas mixture) from a second ion source. Using this technique, the film density and hence compressive film stress for both Nb2O5 and SiO2 films is reduced without introducing any additional optical absorption in the films. FP filter arrays fabricated with stress reduced Nb2O5 and SiO2 as DBR films exhibit high optical and mechanical performance, with good adhesion between the films and the polymer cavity.