OPTO-MECHANICAL OPTICAL PATH RETARDATION MULTIPLIER FOR OPTICAL MEMS APPLICATIONS

Description

An optical Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) device provides an optical path retardation multiplier. The MEMS device includes a moveable corner cube reflector, a fixed minor and a MEMS actuator. The moveable corner cube reflector is optically coupled to receive an incident beam and reflect the incident beam through 180 degrees towards the fixed mirror. The fixed minor is optically coupled to reflect a reflected beam back towards the moveable corner cube reflector along a reverse path of the incident beam. The MEMS actuator is coupled to the moveable corner cube reflector to cause a displacement of the moveable corner cube reflector to extend an optical path length of the reflected beam.

Aspects

The present invention relates in general to optical MEMS, and in particular, to optical path retardation multiplier devices using MEMS technology. Embodiments of the present invention provide an optical Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) device providing an optical path retardation multiplier. The MEMS device includes a moveable corner cube reflector, a fixed mirror and a MEMS actuator. The moveable corner cube reflector is optically coupled to receive an incident beam on one edge of the corner cube reflector and operable to reflect the incident beam from another edge of the corner cube reflector. The fixed mirror is optically coupled to receive the incident beam reflected from the moveable corner cube reflector and operable to reflect the incident beam back towards the moveable corner cube reflector as a reflected beam along a reverse path of the incident beam. The MEMS actuator is coupled to the moveable corner cube reflector to cause a displacement of the moveable corner cube reflector perpendicular to a plane of the fixed mirror to extend an optical path length of the reflected beam.

Patenting Status

Patent Granted

Status

Patented

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