Piezoelectrically operated actuators by quartz micromachining for optical application

A monolithic quartz actuator fabricated by anisotropic etching and operated by means of piezoelectric effect at resonant frequency is reported. Quartz actuators with large displacement had not previously been developed, because quartz has small piezoelectric constants compared to materials such as PZT. However, the authors have demonstrated a mechanism that provides displacements of up to 200 μm with a millimeter-size suspended actuator using the piezoelectricity of quartz. As examples, bellows-type actuators and optical choppers have been fabricated and their mechanical characteristics measured. It has been shown that the bellows-type actuator can displace a small object statically by hitting it repeatedly. This woodpecker motion can be applied to move a small optical component such as a mirror and prism to switch the path of light