Micromachined microscanners for optical scanning

We present the design and fabrication of surface- micromachined electrostatic-comb driven microscanners that have high angular precision over a large scan angle. When used as resonant scanners, these mirrors have fast scan rates with very low operating power. We use polysilicon microhinges, which allow the micromirrors to be lifted out of the plane of the substrate after processing is completed, to create high-aspect-ratio optical surfaces with dimensions in the hundreds of micrometers s while taking advantage of the planar surface-micromachining processing technology. Microscanners that are capable of high-speed scanning over large scan angles with high precision have been fabricated. Application of these actuated micromirrors in laser barcode scanning and optical-fiber switches have been demonstrated. These single-mirror scanners can be combined to form more complicated microscanners such as a two-mirror, two-axis raster scanner that have a wide range of applications in areas such as medicine, displays, printing, data storage, and communications.