Compact MEMS-driven pyramidal polygon reflector for circumferential scanned endoscopic imaging probe.

A novel prototype of an electrothermal chevron-beam actuator based microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) platform has been successfully developed for circumferential scan. Microassembly technology is utilized to construct this platform, which consists of a MEMS chevron-beam type microactuator and a micro-reflector. The proposed electrothermal microactuators with a two-stage electrothermal cascaded chevron-beam driving mechanism provide displacement amplification, thus enabling a highly reflective micro-pyramidal polygon reflector to rotate a large angle for light beam scanning. This MEMS platform is ultra-compact, supports circumferential imaging capability and is suitable for endoscopic optical coherence tomography (EOCT) applications, for example, for intravascular cancer detection.