Resonant Adaptive MEMS Mirror

A novel MEMS continuous deformable mirror (DM) is presented. The mirror can be integrated into optical systems to compensate for monochromatic and chromatic aberrations. It is comprised of a 1.6 mm circular plate supported by eight evenly spaced flexural springs. Unlike traditional bias actuated DMs, it uses resonant electrostatic actuation (REA) to realize low- and high-order Zernike modes with a single drive signal. Instead of the hundreds or thousands of electrodes deployed by traditional DMs, the proposed DM employs only 49 electrodes and eliminates the need for spatial control algorithms and associated hardware, thereby providing a compact low-cost alternative. It also exploits dynamic amplification to reduce power requirements and increase the stroke by driving the DM at resonance. The DM was fabricated using a commercial silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MEMS process. Experimental modal analysis was carried out using laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) to identify mode shapes of the DM and their natural frequencies. We are able to observe all of the lowest eight Zernike modes.