Diffraction grating scanners using polysilicon micromotors

This paper describes polysilicon micromotors with single and pyramidal diffraction grating elements fabricated on the polished surface of large-area rotors for optical scanning applications. While taking full advantage of planar processing, such scanners have high-quality scan profiles, good efficiency, meter working distances, and multiple out of plane beam diffraction orders. Chemical-mechanical polishing was used to reduce the 5-μm-thick polysilicon rotors´ average surface roughness from 420 Å to below 17 Å, with less than 1500-Å film removal, improving the optical performance of the gratings as well as the definition, delineation, and side wall quality of the device features. Self-assembled monolayers (SAM) were found to improve the overall micromotor´s dynamic performance. SAM-coated scanners could operate at voltages as low as 15 V and maximum operational speeds of 5200 rpm. The gratings were tested optically at 633-nm wavelength and were verified to have spatial periods of 1.80 and 3.86 μm, closely matching their design values. Stepping and continuous mode dynamic operation of the scanners was demonstrated with visible diffraction orders at meter distances away