2D FPCB micromirror for scanning LIDAR

Abstract

This paper presents a 2D FPCB (Flexible Printed Circuit Board) micromirror and a scanning 3D LIDAR based on it by integrating the 2D FPCB micromirror with a commercially available single point LIDAR. The 2D FPCB micromirror retains the benefits of previously developed 1D FPCB micromirrors, i.e., large aperture and low cost while providing rotation of the mirror plate about 2 orthogonal axes to be able to scan a laser beam about both vertical and horizontal axes to achieve 2D scanning. One 2D FPCB micromirror is integrated with a single point LIDAR to achieve a 3D scanning LIDAR, which, in comparison to the previously developed 1D FPCB micromirror based 3D LIDAR, achieved more compact structure and lower cost with no strict requirement on the alignment between two micromirrors since only one 2D micromirror rather than two 1D micromirrors used. Prototypes of the 2D FPCB micromirror and the 3D LIDAR based on it are fabricated and tested. The test results demonstrate that the 2D FPCB micromirror based 3D LIDAR achieved a volume reduction over the previous 1D FPCB micromirror based 3D LIDAR from 1042 cm3 to 754 cm3 with a FOV (Field of View) of 40°×24° at 150 Hz horizontal scanning and 2 Hz vertical scanning.

FPCB Micromirrors for 3D Scanning LIDAR

“…The FPCB micromirrors in this thesis are capable of 3D mapping from two axis oscillation with the related papers [44][45][46][47]. Note that [47] contains video demos of the research done in this thesis. This research is built upon the previous work by our group.…”

“…In terms of fatigue, the FPCB design in Figure 1.10 has been tested for 1.2 billion cycles and another FPCB design that has been in the lab since 2014 is at over 22 billion cycles running continuously at 80-100 Hz [33][41]. The FPCB micromirrors in this thesis are capable of 3D mapping from two axis oscillation with the related papers [44][45][46][47]. Note that [47] contains video demos of the research done in this thesis.…”

“…The inner axis is the pair of torsion beams closest to the central mirror and the outer axis is the pair of torsion beams extending from the rotating frame. The associated publication for Chapter 4.0 and Chapter 5.0 can be found in[46] (still in review).…”

Crosstalk-free large aperture electromagnetic 2D micromirror for LiDAR application

“…The author's group proposed FPCB micromirror technology in 2016 [18] and started to develop the FPCB micromirror since then [11,[19][20][21]. The fatigue life of FPCB micromirrors has been examined using multiple designs and a promising result of 0.8 billion cycles was achieved in a previous study [22].…”

“…Thus far, 2D electromagnetic actuation micromirrors draw a lot of attention out of the four MEMS actuation technologies, i.e., electrostatic [6], thermal [7], electromagnetic [1] and piezoelectric [8] driving mechanisms due to the large force generated using electromagnetic driving [2,[9][10][11]. One of the main problems with traditional electromagnetic 2D micromirrors is the crosstalk between the two rotations about the orthogonal axes [12].…”