Nonlinear Dynamics of Large-Angle Circular Scanning With an Aluminum Nitride Micro-Mirror

This paper introduces a model for nonlinear dynamics of a resonant micro-mirror designed for large-angle circular scanning. The mirror is driven by aluminum nitride thin-films within a chip-scale vacuum package, which permits large scan angles to be achieved at low voltages, but with substantial nonlinearity in the mirror’s dynamic response. A nonlinear mirror model is proposed and analyzed to identify major trends in mirror performance and implications for mirror design. Analysis focuses on coupling between two axes, which has not been closely examined for multi-axis micro-mirrors. Coupling between axes is found to be capable of augmenting scan amplitude or causing mirror response to collapse from a circular scan patter to an ellipse or line scan, depending on relative strength of model parameters. Good agreement is achieved between modeled and experimental micro-mirror response, with scan amplitudes near ± 13 degrees under 1.5 V excitation. [2022-0181]