This paper presents the design, modeling, and verification of a MEMS silicon torsion mirror for applications in laser printing. It begins with a description of the torsion mirror design, followed by detailed discussions of modeling and verification of the design. A coupled electro-mechanical computer-aided-design software package MEMCAD is used to perform both electrical and mechanical analysis of the mirror under different applied voltages. The MEMCAD modeling results are then post-processed through a program, which retrieves the displacement components of nodes from MEMCAD output and fits a quadratic surface to the deformed reflecting mirror surface. This approximated surface is to be used later in an optical modeling package to analyze the optical performance of the device. The post-processed results are verified by experiential measurements. The first six natural modes of the mirror are determined and are given to help understand the mechanical response of the mirror to different excitation frequencies, Finally, with the aid of MEMCAD, sensitivity analysis for translation versus rotation is performed in order to optimize the mirror design for a raster output scanner (ROS) optical system.

Date Published: 2 September 1997
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 3226, Microelectronic Structures and MEMS for Optical Processing III, (2 September 1997); doi: 10.1117/12.284559

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3226:
Microelectronic Structures and MEMS for Optical Processing III
M. Edward Motamedi; Hans Peter Herzig, Editor(s)