PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | March 15, 2007
Proc. SPIE. 6510, Medical Imaging 2007: Physics of Medical Imaging
KEYWORDS: Microelectromechanical systems, Optical components, Mirrors, Reflectivity, Adaptive optics, Medical imaging, Microopto electromechanical systems, Micromirrors, Chemical elements, Laser beam diagnostics
This paper presents micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) optical elements with high angular deflection arranged in arrays to perform dynamic laser beam focusing and scanning. Each element selectively addresses a portion of the laser beam. These devices are useful in medical and research applications including laser-scanning microscopy, confocal microscopes, and laser capture micro-dissection. Such laser-based imaging and diagnostic instruments involve complex laser beam manipulations. These often require compound lenses and mirrors that introduce misalignment, attenuation, distortion and light scatter. Instead of using expensive spherical and aspherical lenses and/or mirrors for sophisticated laser beam manipulations, we propose scalable adaptive micro-opto-electro-mechanical-systems (MOEMS) arrays to recapture optical performance and compensate for aberrations, distortions and imperfections introduced by inexpensive optics. A high-density array of small, individually addressable, MOEMS elements is similar to a Fresnel mirror. A scalable 2D array of micro-mirrors approximates spherical or arbitrary surface mirrors of different apertures. A proof of concept prototype was built using PolyMUMPTM due to its reliability, low cost and limited post processing requirements. Low-density arrays (2x2 arrays of square elements, 250x250μm each) were designed, fabricated, and tested. Electrostatic comb fingers actuate the edges of the square mirrors with a low actuation voltage of 20 V - 50 V. CoventorWareTM was used for the design, 3D modeling and motion simulations. Initial results are encouraging. The array is adaptive, configurable and scalable with low actuation voltage and a large tuning range. Individual element addressability would allow versatile uses. Future research will increase deflection angles and maximize reflective area.
