In recent years there has been an emphasis on changing the way we view instrumentation and a desire to make instruments smaller and lower in cost [1-3]. This trend was motivated by the rapid growth in telecommunication technology in the latel 990s. During the past two to three years, a new set of miniaturized (small scale) instrument platforms and products have been produced, including Raman, Infrared (IR and NIR), UV/Vis, and non-optical technologies like Mass Spectrometry and NMR. However, this article focuses on new technologies applied to the near infrared (N!R). In the interest of brevity, four example platforms representative of the newer enabling technologies that are being implemented will be highlighted as they have made miniaturization possible. Practically, these include "no-moving" parts systems, where "moving" relates to a macro movement, such as a mechanically scanned grating, a moving mirror, or a mechanical chopper. As a clarification, some of the systems considered provide movement at the micro-level, such as Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and chip-scale components, including a MEMS FTIR and DLP-based spectral engines. One of the platforms covered is completely solid state, being fabricated as a functional "spectrometer on a chip" concept. This paper will review these new technologies and will provide examples of spectra that reflect the current performance level for common applications. In addition to making systems smaller, the emphasis will be on systems that are truly low in cost, where low cost is from a few $ 100s up to about $5000.
展开▼
