Fringe-field-activated SOI tilting mirrors

This paper discusses a significant improvement of the SOI process that can be implemented in various manners and that remedies many problems of earlier fabrication schemes. In particular the new MOEMS structures are monolithic, do not exhibit rotational snapdown, have electrical shielding between channels, and have activation voltages less than or comparable to parallel plate devices. The approach is discussed in terms of an application requiring a linear array of closely-spaced cantilever mirrors.