Ergonomic Transducer Design for Endoscopic Optical Coherence Tomography

Number of applications for optical MEMS, specifically MEMS with reflecting mirrors increased dramatically in recent years covering areas of optical communication (optical switches), robotics, medical devices, transportation systems, etc. Design of versatile optical transducers with mirrors capable to provide wide range of deflections yet with minimized energy consumption in smaller territory occupied on the semiconductor chip became to be a paramount concern for MEMS designers. Our design describes an optical actuator, where a mirror is installed at a 200µm long lever. On the opposite side of the lever there is a plate of capacitor used to activate lever moves.  The pivoting point could be positioned at any place under the lever to provide needed division of the lever in the ratio needed for specified application. For the Optical Coherence Tomography application discussed in our study the 3:1 ratio is used. Very small applied voltage varying in the range from 0 to 5V moves the mirror with large deflection from 0 o to 45 o . We discuss briefly the standard micro fabrication steps to be used to make our design of our optical actuator.