Patent ID: 7265830

Claim:
A Fourier Transform (FT) spectrometer apparatus for performing FT spectrometry on a sample, the apparatus comprising: a polychromatic light source for generating a light beam; a dispersive element, disposed in a path of the light beam generated by the light source, for diffracting or refracting the light beam into spatially separated spectral components; a multi-element MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) device, disposed in a path of the spatially separated spectral components, for encoding each of the spatially separated spectral components with different one of a plurality of modulation patterns to produce a plurality of encoded spectral components, said multi-element MEMS device comprising a plurality of micro-mirrors coated with liquid crystal materials or a plurality of deformable grating elements; signal and reference beam forming elements, disposed in a path of the plurality of encoded spectral components, for forming the plurality of encoded spectral components into a probe beam and a reference beam and for directing the probe beam to the sample, the probe beam being absorbed or reflected by the sample to generate a signal beam; a first photo detector, disposed in a path of the signal beam, for detecting the signal beam and outputting a first detected signal representing the signal beam; a second photo detector, disposed in a path of the reference beam, for detecting the reference beam and outputting a second detected signal representing the reference beam; and a processor, in communication with the first and second photo detectors to receive the first and second detected signals, for resolving the first and second detected signals to resolve spectral components of the sample.