Miniature optical scanning range sensor utilizing a silicon micromachined scanner

This paper describes a miniature optical scanning range sensor based on a newly proposed detecting method using Si-micromachined optical scanner for detecting range to target plane. This sensor consists of the micro scanner, a right source and photo detector with a pinhole and is featuring higher resolution detecting compared to the conventional method such as trigonometrical measurement using Position Sensitive Detector (PSD). The sensor is capable of high resolution detecting of range 40mm to 50mm with accuracy to less than 1mm when the size of the sensor is 2mmx4mm. The sensor could be applied to the sensor for the micro maintenance robot.