Patent ID: 8115693

Claim:
A sensor that senses incident energy, the sensor comprising: a receiver capable of receiving incident energy; a MEMS, wherein a first portion of the MEMS is electrically coupled to the receiver, wherein a second portion of the MEMS is capable of being deflected by an amount upon receipt of the received incident energy via a change in potential within a known electrical field, and wherein the amount of deflection of the second portion of the MEMS corresponds to an amount of received incident energy; and a detection system including a detection source that applies a detection beam to the second portion of the MEMS, wherein the detection beam interacts with the second portion of the MEMS to thereby provide an affected detection beam, and wherein a characteristic of the affected detection beam varies correspondingly to the amount of deflection of the second portion of the MEMS, wherein the detection system further includes a detector that detects the varying characteristic of the affected detection beam, and wherein the detected varying characteristic of the affected detection beam is used to determine the received incident energy.