A MEMS micromirror driven by electrostatic force

A microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) micromirror is demonstrated in this paper. The micromirror is actuated by an electrostatic force and can achieve a large out of plane stroke by eliminating the electrostatic pull-in effect. The micromirror consists of a mirror of 400 μm by 400 μm in the center, a spring and three fixed bottom electrodes each side. Design principles and the analytical model are both developed, and they are verified by finite element analysis (FEA). The resonant frequency for the piston movement of the designed micromirror is about 2.5 kHz by FEA simulation. The micromirror prototype has been fabricated by a surface micromachining process and it is successfully tested using a microsystem analyzer. An out of plane stroke of 1.65 μm is observed at 100 V and it agrees well with the predicted result from analytical model.