Mobile flat mirrors for micro-optical scanners G. Molar-Velázquez 1 , F. J. Renero-Carrillo 2 , W. Calleja-Arriaga 3 Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE), Luis Enrique Erro No. 1 Santa María Tonantzintla, Puebla C.P. 72840, México. 1 Dept. of Optics, maia@inaoep.mx ; 2 Dept. of Optics, paco@inaoep.mx ; 3 Dept. of Electronics, wcalleja@inaoep.mx ABSTRACT A mobile (electrostatic) flat mirror is designed to bend visible light, and can be fabricated on crystalline silicon by means of photolithography and humid etching. Using the CoventorWare™ software we carry out a simulation of the fabrication process as well as the movement versus voltage of the mobile (electrostatic) flat mirror, which dimensions are 50 microns large by 40 microns width. The required voltage to move the flat mirror 2.17° is 38.1 V. The flatness of the micro-mirror is enough to bend the light in the visible range. Keywords: Micro-mirror, Electrostatic flat mirror, Micro-optical Systems, Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems, Coventor, Integrated Optics. 1. INTRODUCTION The MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) technology has been involved in other disciplines, besides the production of integrated circuits; one of them is the fabrication of micro optical systems classified as Micro-Opto- Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MOEMS) 1,2 . For instance, by means of the photolithography and humid etching on crystalline silicon substrates, flat structures and spherical depressions have been constructed; they can be utilized as mirrors or lenses, depending on the application wavelength 1,2,3,4 . On the other hand, optical scanner systems can be found in scientific and industrial applications such as bar-code reading, optical data storage, printers, laser surgery, and displays. Most of these optical scanner systems are composed of mirrors to fold the light, and lenses or curved mirrors for focusing 5,6,7,8,9,10 . In this work, an electrostatic mobile flat mirror is designed for the photolithography and humid etching on crystalline silicon substrate. The design goal is to get, under 10 µm etching resolution limit, the fabrication parameters of the flat mobile micro-mirror so as to be integrated with conical depressions. Furthermore, a 2-D micro-optical scanner can be composed with this kind of flat micro-mirrors. Thus, a mobile flat mobile mirror of 50 by 40 microns is obtained by using the CoventorWare™ software. It is shown that the required voltage to move 2.17° is 38.1 V. Furthermore, the flatness of the micro-mirror is enough to fold the light in the visible range. 2. 2-D MICRO-OPTICAL SCANNER A sketch of two-dimensional (2D) micro-optical scanner 11 is shown in figure 1. The beam light enters through window V 1 at an angle β, and mirrors E 1 , E 2 , E 3 and E 4 reflect it up to window V 2 . E 1 and E 3 are mobile flat mirrors of the same dimension but perpendicular to each other, and can be tilted on X and Y axes, respectively. MOEMS and Miniaturized Systems VII, edited by David L. Dickensheets, Harald Schenk Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6887, 68870K, (2008) · 0277-786X/08/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.763512 Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6887 68870K-1 2008 SPIE Digital Library -- Subscriber Archive Copy