A stereolithography-based 3D-printed torsional mirror scanner actuated by vertical comb-drive

ABSTRACT We have designed, fabricated and characterized a torsional mirror scanner which is electrostatically actuated by vertical combdrive electrodes. As in the previous works of the authors, such a 3D-printed device, which performs an electromechanical function, has been named as SMEMS (Sub-Milli Electro-Mechanical Systems) device. Up to now, SMEMS devices have been fabricated by a plaster-based 3D-printer. In this work, we have fabricated for the first time a SMEMS device by a stereolithography-based 3D-printer. The scanner consists of a reflector plate with dimensions of (9 x 7) mm and 1mm in thickness, which is supported on both sides of the plate end faces by (1 x 1) mm beam-shaped hinge. The gap between the stationary and movable comb-drive electrodes is 1mm. Since the scanner design has not been optimized for large deflecting angle, we have obtained a small optically full-width deflection angle of 1.1’ (minute) at the resonance frequency of 99Hz. Tough the deflection angle was small, it has been enough to demonstrate that the scanner electromechanically actuates a rotational motion