A Novel Telescope with Micromirror for Observation of Transient Luminous Events from Space

Abstract

A novel type of telescope, a pinhole-like camera with a micromirror array, is introduced for space observation of transient luminous events (TLEs) like gigantic lightning occurring at upper atmosphere currently under question or investigation. The presented telescope has a unique feature of wide field of view (FOV) of surveillance, fast zoom-in and tracking. A high-fill factor, two-axis rotational micromirror array is proposed for the key component of the telescope. To obtain a large static deflection of a mirror, the self-aligned vertical comb-drive actuator is used. Multi-layered structures of a micromirror are fabricated using bulk micromachining techniques, such as deep reactive ion etching and wafer bonding on the full wafer-scale.