Abstract
The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) has been developing and manufacturing micromirror arrays for more than 20 years. While originally focusing on applications related to microlithography and therefore mainly for light in the deep ultraviolet range, the range of applications has been expanded since, including applications in the visible and near-infrared range. This paper gives an overview of the devices and their designs, fabrication, and characterization.
Highlights
The pioneering work of Texas Instruments on “Digital Micromirror Devices” (DMDTM) [1]and the improved quality and availability of other spatial light modulator (SLM) technologies, in particular liquid crystals on silicon (LCoS) [2], both mainly focused on home theater and business projector applications, as well as displays, made SLM technology accessible for a large variety of other applications, for example in the fields of metrology [3] or computer-generated holography [4].there is an increasing number of other applications as diverse as image generation, wavefront shaping, deep tissue imaging, material processing, etc., that require wavelength ranges beyond that of commercially available SLMs or real-time grayscaling at high frame rates
The improved quality and availability of other spatial light modulator (SLM) technologies, in particular liquid crystals on silicon (LCoS) [2], both mainly focused on home theater and business projector applications, as well as displays, made SLM technology accessible for a large variety of other applications, for example in the fields of metrology [3] or computer-generated holography [4]
Among the analog two-dimensional MMAs introduced, there are for example those by Boston Micromachines, who have been active in the field of membrane SLMs [6], as well as increasingly large micromirror arrays with piston-tip-tilt actuators [7]
Summary
The pioneering work of Texas Instruments on “Digital Micromirror Devices” (DMDTM) [1]. There is an increasing number of other applications as diverse as image generation, wavefront shaping, deep tissue imaging, material processing, etc., that require wavelength ranges beyond that of commercially available SLMs or real-time grayscaling at high frame rates. In these cases, custom-made SLMs are required, which can meet some or all of these requirements. The work on light valve technologies on which the work presented here was based started in the late 1980s at the Heinrich-Hertz-Institut für Nachrichtentechnik in Berlin [11] It was continued at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Systems (IMS), of which the current Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) was a part. Most of these devices have in common that they can operate in analog mode, i.e., the mirror deflections can be set to specific individual values, allowing for real-time grayscaling
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