Claims
- 1. A macroscopic mirror for wide angle scanning applications comprising:
a silicon substrate section of a predetermined shape and macroscopic size cut from a silicon wafer comprising a flat, polished surface side and an etched, rough surface side; and a plurality of layers, including a layer of reflective medium, disposed on the flat, polished surface of said substrate section in such a manner to minimize flexural distortion of said flat surface.
- 2. The macroscopic mirror of claim 1 wherein the reflective medium being selected for an at least one wavelength of radiation to be reflected thereby.
- 3. The macroscopic mirror of claim 1 wherein the reflective medium is selected from the group consisting of gold and silver.
- 4. The macroscopic mirror of claim 1 wherein the etched, rough surface side of the silicon substrate serves as a backing plate for bonding the mirror to a scan drive mechanism.
- 5. The macroscopic mirror of claim 1 wherein the plurality of layers comprise a bottom primer layer, a middle reflective medium layer and a top protective coating layer.
- 6. The macroscopic mirror of claim 5 wherein each layer of the plurality of layers is applied by sputtering to a predetermined thickness.
- 7. The macroscopic mirror of claim 1 wherein the mirror has a thermal distortion coefficient in the range of 0.020 to 0.032.
- 8. The macroscopic mirror of claim 1 wherein the substrate section is cut from the wafer in the form of an ellipse having a major axis dimension of approximately 70 mm and a minor axis dimension of approximately 50 mm.
- 9. The macroscopic mirror of claim 1 wherein the silicon wafer from which the substrate section is cut has a thickness of less than 1 mm.
- 10. The macroscopic mirror of claim 1 wherein the substrate section is laser cut from the silicon wafer.
- 11. A method of making a macroscopic mirror for wide angle scanning applications comprising:
preparing a silicon wafer by polishing one side to a predetermined flatness and etching the other side to a predetermined roughness; cutting a substrate section from the prepared silicon wafer to a predetermined shape and macroscopic size; and applying a plurality of layers, including a layer of reflective medium, on the flat, polished surface of said substrate section in such a manner to minimize flexural distortion of said flat surface.
- 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the substrate section is cut from the silicon wafer in a cookie cutter fashion.
- 13. The method of claim 11 wherein the substrate section is laser cut from the silicon wafer.
- 14. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of applying includes the steps of:
applying a primer layer to a first predetermined thickness on the flat, polished surface of the substrate section; applying the reflective medium layer to a second predetermined thickness on the primer layer; and applying a protective coating layer to a third predetermined thickness on the reflective medium layer.
- 15. A mirror system for wide angle scanning a radiation beam, said system comprising:
a macroscopic mirror comprising:
a silicon substrate section of a predetermined shape and macroscopic size cut from a silicon wafer, said substrate section comprising a flat, polished surface side and an etched, rough surface side; and a plurality of layers, including a layer of reflective medium, disposed on the flat, polished surface of said substrate section in such a manner to minimize flexural distortion of said flat surface; a mirror drive mechanism including a plurality of supporting arms; and wherein the rough surface side of said macroscopic mirror being bonded to said supporting arms of the drive mechanism, said mirror drive mechanism for scanning said macroscopic mirror at a predetermined scanning rate in at least one plane of rotation.
- 16. The system of claim 15 wherein the macroscopic mirror is bonded to the supporting arms of the drive mechanism in such a manner to minimize flexural distortion of said flat surface.
- 17. The system of claim 15 wherein the drive mechanism scans the macroscopic mirror at a scanning rate of approximately 100 Hz.
- 18. The system of claim 15 wherein the mirror drive mechanism scans the macroscopic mirror through a scan angle of at least 30° peak to peak.
- 19. The system of claim 15 wherein the macroscopic mirror operates to reflect a large beamwidth of laser energy through a predetermined pattern and to receive backscatterings from the laser energy.
- 20. The system of claim 15 wherein the mirror drive mechanism comprises a resonant scanner.
Parent Case Info
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/056,199, entitled “Silicon Wafer Based Rotatable Mirror” and filed Jan. 24, 2002, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10056199 |
Jan 2002 |
US |
Child |
10611631 |
Jul 2003 |
US |