Polyimide amplified piezoelectric scanning mirror for spectral domain optical coherence tomography

Abstract

The authors present polyimide amplified piezoelectric bimorph scanning mirrors for application in optical coherence tomography (oct). These devices use piezoelectric bimorph actuators to drive microfabricated polyimide structures at resonance. These devices have tilting tables (either 1.125 or 2.25mm wide) that tilt on 3μm thick torsion hinges to amplify the motion of the bimorph actuators and produce large scan ranges. These devices have been integrated into the scanning arm of a spectral domain OCT imaging system. Preliminary in vivo images have been obtained with scans of 40°–50° at real-time imaging rates of 25–41frames∕s.

Miniature orthogonal optical scanning mirror excited by torsional piezoelectric fiber actuator

“…The advantages of piezoelectric optical scanning devices have also been reported in many studies [5,10]: simple structure, quick response, wide bandwidth, robustness, good stability, and anti-interference, which are all basic requirements for optical scanners. Thin film piezoelectric materials have fabrication processes that are compatible with MEMS and are commonly used in MEMS optical micro scanners as bending actuators with a low driving voltage [11].…”

“…These devices usually require high performance one-dimensional (1D) or two-dimensional (2D) scanners that possess large scanning angles at proper frequencies and large mirror sizes for high optical focus quality. Moreover, low production cost is necessary for the promotion of commercialization, and further miniaturization is important for critical applications, such as medical endoscopic imaging systems [5,6].…”

Two-axis magnetically-driven MEMS scanning catheter for endoscopic high-speed optical coherence tomography

“…Distal-actuated catheters are based on either miniaturized actuators [39][40][41] or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. These catheters generally can scan in 2D for 3D imaging and can scan at high speeds.…”

“…MEMS technology is especially promising to produce integrated miniaturized actuators for scanning catheters. MEMS-based scanning catheters have been developed with various actuation mechanisms such as electrothermal [42,43], electrostatic [44][45][46][47], polyimide amplified piezoelectric [48], and magnetic [49] actuation. One-axis and two-axis electrothermal actuated scanners based on bimorph thermal actuator hinges have been implemented.…”

Optical coherence tomography: fundamental principles, instrumental designs and biomedical applications

“…OCT catheterized probes are designed to collect images either in the forward scanning (forward-viewing) mode or in the radial outward scanning mode (side-viewing). It is widely recognized that OCT system performance is affected by compactness, scanning speed, and flexibility of the imaging probe (Liu et al 2004;Tran et al 2004;Zara and Patterson 2006;Munce et al 2008;Min et al 2009). …”