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 The small footprint and low power consumption of MEMS-based products have enabled a resurgence of MEMS development in recent years as consumers demand products with more functionality in smaller form factors.
Texas Instruments has more than a decade of experience designing and manufacturing custom, single-element analog mirrors using MEMS technology. To construct an analog mirror, TI etches a mirror and companion rotating torsional hinges from a single piece of silicon. Silicon provides a virtually defect-free mirror surface and an extremely reliable hinge that never work hardens when operated over its specified scan range. The mirror is also coated for desired reflective properties depending on the application. For example, the TALP1000B’s gold coating makes it highly reflective in the infrared range. Next an electromagnetic or peizo-based motor is attached to the mirror and hinge silicon to drive required motion. Finally, the mirror-motor assembly is integrated into a package that provides both an electrical and a mechanical interface for customers’ applications. Mirror position feedback functionality is also included into many of TI’s analog mirror products.
TI Analog Mirrors are designed to be integrated into a wide range of light steering applications requiring energy-efficient and elegant system design. Read more about the operation of different types of analog mirrors in What are TI Analog Mirrors.
The capabilities of TI Analog Mirrors are well-suited for several precision laser steering applications. For example, the ability to reproducibly position a scanned laser spot is crucial for high performance laser printing. A mirror drive control circuit allows system designers to minimize variations in laser spot position (also known as scan jitter) in the scanned print line. TI’s laser printer mirrors used with the feedback controlled driver can scan a laser spot with less than 0.0008 degrees (14 micro radians) of variation from line to line. The results are best-in-class jitter performance, superior to the commercially available alternative based on polygon scan engines. With proper drive control, these mirrors provide excellent precision in locating light pixels. In addition, TI Scanning Mirrors have very low dynamic deformation under operation (< 50nm peak to peak deformation), minimizing beam distortion and enabling tightly focused spots across the entire scan line.
The ability to operate under closed-loop feedback drive control allows TI Analog Mirrors to scan or point laser light beams in other applications as well such as optical networking, free space optics, imaging and projection, and object detection. For instance, TI Analog Mirrors can be used to select a wavelength in ROADMs and optical channel monitors to enable channel switching and measurement with much higher optical efficiency compared to traditional methods. Read more in Key Benefits and Application Areas.
Ready to design with TI Analog Mirrors? Check out these resources:
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