Control and Characterization of Line-Addressable Micromirror Arrays

This research involved the design and implementation of a complete line-addressable control system for a 32x32 electrostatic piston-actuated micromirror array device. Line addressing reduces the number of control lines from N^2 to 2N making it possible to design larger arrays and arrays with smaller element sizes. The system utilizes the electromechanical bi-stability of individual elements to bold arbitrary bi-stable phase patterns. The control system applies pulse width modulated (PWM) signals to the rows and columns of the micromirror array. Three modes of operation were conceived and built into the system. The first was the traditional signal scheme which requires the array to be reset before a new pattern can be applied. The second is an original scheme that allows dynamic switching between bi-stable patterns. The third and final mode applies an effective voltage ramp across the device by operating above mechanical cutoff. Device characterization and control system testing were conducted on predesigned and prefabricated samples from two different foundry processes. Testing results showed that the control system was successfully integrated. However, bi-stable control of individual mirror elements was not successfully demonstrated on samples due to flaws in the device design. A more robust device design which corrects these flaws and increases operational yield is proposed.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Engineering and Management is the author of 'Control and Characterization of Line-Addressable Micromirror Arrays', published 2001 under ISBN 9781423528647 and ISBN 1423528646.