Thermally actuated MEMS optical devices

Micromirrors with linear deflection behaviors have been found useful for systems requiring 1D and 2D optical scanning patterns and are solutions for low-cost vector or video raster image generators. The advantages of thermal buckle-beam and bimorph actuators are high resulting force, low MEMS area and low voltage requirements. The mirror devices presented in this paper can achieve modest deflection angles at relatively high frequencies. Non-resonant, near-linear 2D mirror deflection response has been achieved with a maximum deflection of 12 optical degrees at a frequency of a few KHz. Employing a high Q resonant structure, a frequency of 14 KHz has been attained with a 1D mirror scanner at a maximum optical deflection of around 40 degrees. ID and 2D scanning mirror devices have been built and improved and will be reviewed in this paper. A tunable Bragg detraction grating will also be discussed.