Patent ID: 7633629

Claim:
An optical cavity device comprising: first and second light-reflective components with a light-transmissive region between them, each of the light-reflective components being structured to reflect light into the light-transmissive region; a tuning structure that is structured to respond to tuning signals by moving the first and second light-reflective components among a set of positions relative to each other; the tuning structure including: one or more deformable components connected so that deformation of at least one of the deformable components causes the first and second light-reflective components to move within the set of positions; and at least one signal-responsive component that receives the tuning signals and, in response, causes deformation of at least one of the deformable components; the light-transmissive region including an analyte region, the analyte region being bounded in part by at least one of the deformable components; and a fluidic component that, in operation, provides an analyte in the analyte region; the set of positions including a subset of one or more positions in which the first and second light-reflective components and the light-transmissive region with analyte from the fluidic component in the analyte region are configured to operate as an optical cavity that provides analyte-affected output light, the analyte-affected output light including information about one or more optical characteristics of the analyte.