A membrane mirror with transparent electrode for adaptive optics

Membrane deformable mirror devices consist of a single large membrane that is suspended above an array of actuating electrodes. A transparent electrode is incorporated into the membrane mirror device in the optical path in an effort to provide significantly greater control of the membrane, and hence improved performance in an adaptive optics system. The devices presented here were fabricated from 1μm thickness SOI; devices were bonded to electrode arrays with 1024 electrodes, packaged in ceramic pin grid arrays and driven by off chip D/A electronics. The transparent electrodes consist of glass that is ITO coated for electrical conductivity and visible light transmission. An electrode is inserted into a recessed cavity of each membrane chip, and is positioned 70 um above the membrane. With 2×2 binned electrodes, the device demonstrates 10 μm deflection toward the electrode array at 40 V. Large deflection at low voltage is obtained because of the low intrinsic stress of the silicon membrane. These data also demonstrate modest deflection toward the transparent electrode, which may be improved with better alignment of the transparent electrode with the underlying membrane and electrode array in future devices.