Polymer MEMS for the active control of VCSEL beam

Beam control of VCSELs (vertical cavity surface emitting lasers) is a key topic to integrate these laser diodes in microsystems for instrumentation or biomedical application. We report here on a simple method to control dynamically the beam shape of VCSELs devices. Our approach is based on an electro-thermal actuator including a polymer membrane, a heating electrode and a polymer microlens. The operation principle is the following: the laser beam waist position can be tune thanks to the membrane vertical displacement induced by varying the applied current. Optical and thermo-mechanical optimizations of membrane geometry have been carried out.