Abstract
A new aerosol jet printed lead-zirconium-titanate (PZT) actuated scanner for potential 2D scanning application is proposed. The proposed actuator combines a microfabricated PZT MEMS actuator with an off-the-shelf taper optical fiber for a simple overall design. The actuator is fabricated by constructing a 5 μm layer of high quality PZT thin film directly on a 60 μm thick stainless-steel substrate using aerosol deposition method. A chemically etched single-mode optical fiber (SM600) is epoxied onto the cantilever arm of the actuator structure to serve as the scanning waveguide. The scanner is driven at its resonant frequency of 896 Hz and 5650 Hz and the vertical tip displacement of up to 343 μm is achieved with a ±36V input. The finite element analysis of the actuator pad and the fabrication procedure for the design are presented. A comparison of the frequency response test results of the proposed scanner from the harmonic analysis in simulation, laser vibrometer and the optical observing methods is also discussed.