A highly compact and low power consuming Q-switch module was developed based on a fast single-axis MEMS mirror, for use in eye-safe battery-powered laser range finders The module’s 1.6mm x 1.6mm mirror has <99% reflectance at 1535nm wavelength and can achieve mechanical angle slew rates of over 500 rad/sec when switching the Er/Yb:Glass lasing cavity from pumping to lasing state. The design targeted higher efficiency, smaller size, and lower cost than the traditional Electro-Optical Q-Switch. Because pulse-on-demand capability is required, resonant mirrors cannot be used to achieve the needed performance. Instead, a fast point-to-point analog single-axis tilt actuator was designed with a custom-coated high reflectance (HR) mirror to withstand the high intra-cavity laser fluence levels. The mirror is bonded on top of the MEMS actuator in final assembly. A compact MEMS controller was further implemented with the capability of autonomous on-demand operation based on user-provided digital trigger. The controller is designed to receive an external 3V power supply and a digital trigger and it consumes ~90mW during the short switching cycle and ~10mW in standby mode. Module prototypes were tested in a laser cavity and demonstrated high quality laser pulses with duration of ~20ns and energy of over 3mJ.

Date Published: 27 February 2015
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 9375, MOEMS and Miniaturized Systems XIV, 93750H (27 February 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2082212

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9375:
MOEMS and Miniaturized Systems XIV
Wibool Piyawattanametha; Yong-Hwa Park, Editor(s)