Total dose degradation of MEMS optical mirrors

Abstract

This paper discusses the effect of ionizing radiation on two types of deformable MEMS mirrors. Little effect was observed in the technology that was based on electrostatic deflection, consistent with the structural design that does not contain insulators between the two sections. Significant changes in the operating characteristics were observed for the second type of mirror, which uses piezoelectric material for actuation. The mirrors required higher total dose levels before they were affected compared with MEMS accelerometers, which can be explained by the larger interelement spacing used in the mirror arrays.