Micro-flex mirror and instability actuation technique

This paper reports on the design and fabrication of a surface micromachined mirror system which is capable of producing the required moments to rotate a mirror structure out of the plane of fabrication. The planar structures created by surface micromachining present difficulties with developing a sufficient moment to move structures out of the x-y plane when actuated by those same planar structures. This is due to the short moment arms (in thickness direction z) that can be created in the fabrication process. The instability actuation technique reported here has general application to moving 2-dimensional structures up and out of the plane of their original fabrication. This technique can be applied to “build” truly 3-dimensional structures from a nearly 2-dimensional fabrication process. Surface micromachining can now be considered a 3-dimensional process where 3-dimensional structures are built by raising up structures by the instability actuation technique and making appropriate mechanical interconnections