Technology and applications of micromachined silicon adaptive mirrors

The technology of low-cost high-quality micromachined adaptive mirrors is reported. Adaptive mirrors are fabricated by combining bulk silicon micromachining with standard electronics technologies. Mirrors with tens of control channels, having RMS initial deviation from plane of the order of lambda/20 and a range of surface deflection of 10 to 20 mu m with linear frequency response in the range of 50 Hz to 1 kHz, are fabricated on standard PCB substrates. Advanced devices with hundreds of control channels, demanding integration of driver and switching electronics, are currently under development. (C) 1997 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.