Large electrostatically and electromagnetically actuated mirror system for space applications

Abstract

We present the design and microfabrication technology of a tip-tilt 2 degree of freedom mirror system made out of SOI wafers with two movable mirrors that have diameters of 1cm. The system is intended for precise beam positioning applications and tracking. Having two mirrors allows one mirror to have large static mechanical scan angles (±3.5°) and the other to have fast fine pointing capabilities within ±0.2° static mechanical scan angle. The first mirror is magnetically actuated and has a resonance frequency of 150Hz. The second mirror is actuated electrostatically and has a resonance frequency of 1 KHz. This mirror enables rapid fine-pointing. Potential space applications are robotic 3D vision, imaging LIDARS, docking sensors and inter-satellite laser communications.