Silicon Membrane Mirrors with Electrostatic Shape Actuators

Efforts are under way to develop deformable mirrors equipped with microscopic electrostatic actuators that would be used to maintain their reflective surfaces in precise shapes required for their intended applications. Unlike actuators that depend on properties of materials (e.g., piezoelectric and electrostrictive actuators), electrostatic actuators are effective over a wide temperature range. A mirror of the present type would be denoted a MEMSDM (for microelectromechanical system deformable mirror). The reflective surface of such a mirror would be formed on a single-crystal silicon membrane that would be attached by posts to a silicon actuator membrane that would, in turn, be attached by posts to a rigid silicon base (see figure). The actuator membrane would serve as the upper electrode of a capacitor. Multiple lower electrodes, each occupying a conveniently small fraction of the total area, would be formed on an electrically insulating oxide layer on the base, thereby defining a multiplicity of actuator pixels. The actuator membrane would be corrugated in a pattern that would impart mechanical compliance needed for relaxation of operational and fabrication-induced stresses and to minimize the degree of nonlinearity of deformations. The compliance afforded by the corrugations would also help to minimize the undesired coupling of deformations between adjacent pixels (a practical goal being to keep the influence coefficient between adjacent pixels below 10 percent).