AVS 59th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition
    MEMS and NEMS Tuesday Sessions
       Session MN-TuM

Paper MN-TuM6
Fabrication and Characterization of Ultra-Fast Electrostatically-Actuated Surface Micro-Machined Aluminum Mirrors

Tuesday, October 30, 2012, 9:40 am, Room 10

Session: Optomechanics and Photonic MEMS and NEMS
Presenter: J.R. Fox, Ducommun Miltec
Authors: J.R. Fox, Ducommun Miltec
A.D. Mathias, Ducommun Miltec
J.P. Cortes, Ducommun Miltec
M.S. Allen, Ducommun Miltec
S.B. Horowitz, Ducommun Miltec
M.G. Temmen, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center
M. Sanghadasa, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center
Correspondent: Click to Email
The design, optimization, fabrication, and characterization of an electrostatically-actuated, surface micro-machined aluminum, torsional-beam micro-mirror is presented. The design was optimized to produce a 5 degree tilt of the 20 x 20 micron mirrors with a settle time of less than 6 microseconds with a 190 V electric potential across a 3 micron gap. The design is repeated in 25 x 25 arrays for high-speed deflection of incident light as an optical shutter. Utilization of the COMSOL Multiphysics finite element analysis environment for parameterization of geometries is described and the resulting optimized micro-mirror design is detailed. Fabrication of micro-mirrors via argon ion-mill patterning of aluminum over sacrificial resists and their subsequent dry release with oxygen plasma will be described. The micro-mirrors were then subjected to scanning electron microscopic examination, and laser-Doppler vibrometry was used to examine micro-mirror actuation performance.