Integrated Thermal Convection-Based Position Sensing for Electrothermal Micromirrors

This paper serves to demonstrate thermal convection-based sensing as a promising vertical piston displacement and tilt angle sensing mechanism for electrothermal micromirrors. This position sensor consists of one heater located at each of the other two sides of the mirror plate and four thermistors located on the substrate adjacent to each of the heaters on the mirror plate. The position sensor can detect the vertical displacement with a sensitivity of 0.2 mV/μm in the range of 350μm and the tilt angle with a sensitivity of 2.63 mV/° in the range of 20°.