In-plane comb-drive actuator with high frequency-displacement product for micro-optical bench applications

This work reports the design, implementation and testing of an in-plane comb-drive actuator achieving a travel range of 17.8 μm at a resonance frequency of 26 kHz, and monolithically integrated with a vertical micromirror. The product of the travel range and the frequency is 463 μm.kHz, indicating the maximum linear velocity of the micromirror, is the highest of a MEMS in-plane actuator reported under atmospheric pressure, to the best of the authors´ knowledge. The design is fabricated using the DRIE technology on an SOI wafer and tested optically by counting the interferometric fringes formed between the micromirror surface and a standard single-mode fiber at the wavelength of 1550 nm.