The present invention relates to micron-scale displacement measurement
devices. A first embodiment is a device that includes a substrate and a
rigid structure suspended above the substrate to form a backside cavity.
Formed in the rigid structure is a reflective diffraction grating
positioned to reflect a first portion of an incident light and transmit a
second portion of the incident light such that the second portion of the
incident light is diffracted. The device also includes a membrane
positioned a distance d above the reflective diffraction grating and at
least a first photo-detector for receiving interference patterns produced
from the first portion of the incident light reflected from the
diffraction grating and the second portion of the incident light
reflected from the membrane.