An electrothermally-actuated, dual-mode micromirror for large bi-directional scanning

We report a novel single-crystal-silicon (SCS)-based micromirror that can perform large bi-directional scans and can also generate large piston motion. The micromirror rotates over /spl plusmn/15/spl deg/ at less than 6 V dc voltage, and over /spl plusmn/43/spl deg/ (i.e., >170/spl deg/ optical scan angle) at its resonance of 2.4 kHz. A maximum vertical piston motion of 200 /spl mu/m is also achieved with this 700 /spl mu/m-by-320 /spl mu/m device. A circuit model has been developed for electrothermal behavioral simulation and design optimization. The simulation results using the circuit model match the experimental data to within 8%.