Resonant biaxial 7-mm MEMS mirror for omnidirectional scanning

Low-cost automotive laser scanners for environment perception are needed to enable the integration of advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS) into all automotive vehicle segments, a key to reducing the number of traffic accidents on roads. An omnidirectional 360 degree laser scanning concept has been developed based on combination of an omnidirectional lens and a biaxial large aperture MEMS mirror. This omnidirectional scanning concept is the core of a small sized low-cost time-of-flight based range sensor development. This paper describes concept, design, fabrication and first measurement results of a resonant biaxial 7mm gimbal-less MEMS mirror that is electrostatically actuated by stacked vertical comb drives. Identical frequencies of the two resonant axes are necessary to enable the required circle scanning capability. A tripod suspension was chosen since it allows minimizing the frequency splitting of the two resonant axes. Low mirror curvature is achieved by a thickness of the mirror of more than 500 µm. Hermetic wafer level vacuum packaging of such large mirrors based on multiple wafer bonding has been developed to enable to achieve a large mechanical tilt angle of +/- 6.5 degrees in each axis. The 7mm-MEMS mirror demonstrates large angle circular scanning at 1.5kHz.