AlN Piezoelectric Quad-Actuators for 2D Optical Micro Scanning

Abstract

Piezoelectric actuation has been one of the frequent choices for optical micro scanning. In most of the cases, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) has been used as the piezoelectric material. However, PZT has a potential issue in biomedical applications due to the content of lead. For this, AlN can be used as an alternative. The main drawback of AlN is its low piezoelectric coefficients. In order to overcome such a drawback, this paper presents a novel actuator configuration, designed for a quasi-static operation mode. Quad-actuators and meander-shaped hinges are the essence of the proposed actuator configuration. Numerical simulation study is carried out to prove the concept of the device. The study also shows that the proposed scanner can have the optical scan angle of 9 degree at a quasi-static mode. Two different scan modes, a raster-like mode and a Lissajous mode are tested, demonstrating the two-dimensional scanning capability of the device.