Surface micromachined segmented mirrors for adaptive optics

摘要

This paper presents recent results for aberration correction and beam steering experiments using polysilicon surface micromachined piston micromirror arrays. Microfabricated deformable mirrors offer a substantial cost reduction for adaptive optic systems. In addition to the reduced mirror cost, microfabricated mirrors typically require low control voltages (less than 30 V), thus eliminating high-voltage amplifiers. The greatly reduced cost per channel of adaptive optic systems employing microfabricated deformable mirrors promise high-order aberration correction at low cost. Arrays of piston micromirrors with 128 active elements were tested. Mirror elements are on a 203-/spl mu/m 12/spl times/12 square grid (with 16 inactive elements, four in each corner of the array). The overall array size is 2.4 mm square. The arrays were fabricated in a commercially available surface micromachining process. The cost per mirror array in this prototyping process is less than $200. Experimental results are presented for a hybrid correcting element comprised of a lenslet array and piston micromirror array, and for a piston micromirror array only. Also presented is a novel digital deflection micromirror that requires no digital to analog converters, further reducing the cost of adaptive optics systems.