A Temperature-Gradient Driven Micromirror with Large Angles and High Frequencies

In this work we demonstrate that thermoelastic actuation can be used to drive tilting micromirrors to large angles at high frequencies. We present a Single Crystalline Silicon (SCS) micromirror with 1 mm diameter that achieves a scanning deflection angle of ± 8.5 ° at 9.5 kHz, which is driven by a 1.5 Volt source. The key feature that enables the high frequency of the thermoelastic actuator is that it uses temperature gradient as the driving force rather than using temperature itself as in prevalent thermoelastic actuators.