Fabrication and characterization of a PZT actuated micromirror with two-axis rotational motion for free space optics

Abstract

An actuated micromirror having two-degree of freedom in rotational motion around the orthogonal axes is designed and fabricated. Suspended unimorph PZT actuators independently control the rotation of the micromirror along the two perpendicular axes. The PZT actuators located symmetrically around the axes of the actuation are mechanically isolated with each other during their operation by a gimbaled structure. The mechanical cross talk between each axis of actuation is well suppressed less than 7% due to the gimbals. The rotation angle /spl theta/ of the micromirror reaches 0.75/spl deg/ under the applied bias of 15 V while maintaining the profile of the reflected laser beam without significant degradation.