An electrothermal micromirror with NiCr-SiO₂ bimorph actuators

Traditional electrothermal micromirrors made of aluminium-dioxide bimorph actuators have been widely used in spatial light modulation, projection display, and other fields. But the fabrication process of these micromirrors is very complex. The reliability and stability of these devices are also key issues that need to be resolved. In order to solve these problems, a new material, nichrome, is introduced to replace aluminium in bimorph actuated electrothermal micromirrors, and a new electrothermal micromirror based on nichrome-dioxide is designed, fabricated, and tested in this paper. The results showed that the micromirror can work as expected, and has comparable performance with traditional electrothermal micromirror.