The emergence and rapid growth of the microelectronic industry, and its concomitant drive for the miniaturization of electronic devices, together with the optical fiber telecommunication industry and its need to couple light in and out of single mode waveguides, has created in their wake, a new area of optics termed "micro-optics". What is meant by this term is optical elements of dimension of a millimeter or smaller. Primarily, this has meant lenses, or elements that act as lenses, as well as structures that redirect, polarize, and otherwise alter some state or direction of light.