Patent ID: 7734131

Claim:
A tunable Fabry-Perot filter comprising: a pair of substrates having parallel generally planar facing principal surfaces including: spaced-apart facing reflective surface regions that are at least partially reflective at least over a selected wavelength range, the spaced-apart facing reflective surface regions defining an optical gap therebetween, at least one substrate of the pair of substrates being light-transmissive at least over the selected wavelength range to enable optical coupling with the optical gap through the at least one substrate, the facing reflective surface regions each having rigid support provided by supporting portions of the corresponding substrates that move with the facing reflective surface regions, peripheral regions surrounding at least the facing reflective surface regions, the peripheral regions of the pair of substrates being stationary relative to one another, and a deformable connection between the peripheral region and the reflective surface region of at least one substrate of the pair of substrates; and electrodes disposed on the parallel generally planar facing principal surfaces of the substrates, the electrodes on the parallel generally planar facing principal surfaces defining an electrode gap therebetween, the deformable connection of the substrates enabling electrical biasing of the electrodes to simultaneously modify the optical and electrode gaps.