Piezoelectrically driven translatory optical MEMS actuator with 7mm apertures and large displacements

The design and manufacturing of a piezoelectrically driven translatory MEMS actuator is presented, which features a 7 mm aperture and four thin-film PZT actuators achieving large displacements. The actuator performs piston mode oscillation in resonance which can serve for Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Thereby vertical displacements in piston mode of up to ± 800 μm at 163 Hz and 25 V driving sinusoidal voltage has been achieved under ambient conditions. Due to the low frequencies and the low driving voltages only low power consumption is required. The effect of residual gas friction and internal friction on the piezo-driven MEMS actuator is analyzed by measuring Qvalues associated with the piston mode. Laser Doppler Vibrometry (LDV) was also used to detect and analyses the parasitic effects especially tilting which superimposes the vertical movement of the mirror. The deviation from the pure vertical piston mode was found to 1.3 μm along the x and 3 μm in the y-axis.