Experimental measurements and behavioral modeling of an electrostatically actuated bi-axial micromirror

Recent developments in micro-electro-mechanical systems and micromachining technologies have made possible the development and integration of micromirrors that can be employed for a number of consumer applications such as free space optical switching (Syms in J Lightwave Technol 20(7):1084–1094, 2002; Pan in Micromech Microeng 14(1):129–137, 2004), 2D scanning or image projection (Texas Instruments DLP ). This high level of integration provides many advantages such as reproductivity and improved performance. Obviously, these increased levels of miniaturization raise new characterization and modeling concerns. We present in this paper the design, the fabrication process, the characterization and the behavioral modeling approach of a novel electrostatically actuated bi-axial micromirror. This micro-opto-electro-mechanical system is a result of a joint development between our partners Colibrys and Coventor companies (Colibrys ; Coventor ). In the field of this work, two HDL multi-physics models using Verilog-A language and Matlab have been developed and validated by different experimental measurements.