Digitaloptics Corporation Mems

Digital Optics Corporation

Tessera Mems Technologies, Inc.

Digitaloptics Corporatin Mems

Ankur Jain

Roman Gutierrez

Robert J Calvet

Xiaolei Liu

Guiqin Wang

Shi-Sheng Lee

Lakshminarayan Hariharan

A device may comprise a substrate formed of a first semiconductor material and a trench formed in the substrate. A second semiconductor material may be formed in the trench. The second semiconductor material may have first and second portions that are isolated with respect to one another and that are isolated with respect to the first semiconductor material.

MEMS isolation structures

A device can have an outer frame and an actuator. The actuator can have a movable frame and a fixed frame. At least one torsional flexure and at least one hinge flexure can cooperate to provide comparatively high lateral stiffness between the outer frame and the movable frame and can cooperate to provide comparatively low rotational stiffness between the outer frame and the movable frame.

Motion controlled actuator

A microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) device may be provided with one or more sintered electrical contacts. The MEMS device may be a MEMS actuator or a MEMS sensor. The sintered electrical contacts may be silver-paste metalized electrical contacts. The sintered electrical contacts may be formed by depositing a sintering material such as a metal paste, a metal preform, a metal ink, or a metal powder on a wafer of released MEMS devices and heating the wafer so that the deposited sintering material diffuses into a substrate of the device, thereby making electrical contact with the device. The deposited sintering material may break through an insulating layer on the substrate during the sintering process. The MEMS device may be a multiple degree of freedom actuator having first and second MEMS actuators that facilitate autofocus, zoom, and optical image stabilization for a camera.

MEMS electrical contact systems and methods

A method for making a motion control feature for an actuator device of a type that has a moveable component coupled to an opposing fixed component for out-of-plane rotational movement relative thereto includes forming first and second flaps respectively extending from the moveable and fixed components and toward the opposing component and operable to effect one or more of damping movement of the moveable component relative to the fixed component and/or restraining movement of the moveable component relative to the fixed component in a direction substantially perpendicular to the actuator device.

Actuator motion control features

A method for making an actuator device includes forming a substantially planar structure having a stage resiliently supported for movement within a plane of the structure, an actuator coupled to an outer periphery of the stage and operable to apply a force acting in the plane and tangentially to the stage when actuated, the actuator comprising a fixed frame and a moving frame resiliently supported for reciprocal movement relative to the fixed frame by a motion control flexure, and an outer frame surrounding and supporting the stage and the actuator. The moving frame is moved to a deployed position that is coplanar with, parallel to and spaced apart from the fixed frame at a selected distance, and the moving frame is then fixed at the deployed position for substantially rectilinear, perpendicular movement relative to the fixed frame.

MEMS actuator device deployment

An electronic device may have a MEMS device formed of a first conductive material. A trench may be formed in the MEMS device. A layer of non-conductive material may be formed in the trench. A second conductive material may be formed upon the non-conductive material.

Electrical routing

A device may comprise a substrate formed of a first semiconductor material, a first trench formed in the substrate, a second trench formed in the substrate proximate the first trench, an oxide layer formed in the first trench and the second trench, and a second semiconductor material formed upon the oxide layer. The oxide layer in the second trench may be adapted to mitigate undercut of the oxide layer in the first trench during an etching process.

Guard trench

A device may comprise a flexure formed of a first semiconductor material. A first trench may be formed in the flexure. The first trench may separate the first semiconductor material into a first portion and a second portion thereof. An oxide layer may be formed in the first trench. The oxide layer may extend over a top portion of the first semiconductor material. A second semiconductor material may be formed on the oxide layer. The first trench and the oxide layer may cooperate to electrically isolate the first portion and the second portion from one another.

Mounting flexure contacts

A multiple degree of freedom actuator can have at least one first MEMS actuator configured to move a platform in translation and at least one second MEMS actuator configured to move the platform in a different direction, e.g., tangentially. The first MEMS actuator(s) can facilitate autofocus and/or zoom, for example. The second MEMS actuator(s) can facilitate optical image stabilization (OIS), for example.

Multiple degree of freedom actuator

A flexure assembly can have a stage that is deployed to a desired position by attachment of the flexure assembly to a housing. For example, a frame can be configured to be held in position by one portion of the housing and a deployment pad can be configured to be held in position by another portion of the housing. A deployment flexure can be configured to facilitate positioning of the frame and the deployment pad out-of-plane with respect to one another. The deployment flexure and a motion control flexure can facilitate movement of the stage with respect to the housing. In this manner, the position of the stage and the preload of the stage are determined by the housing.

MEMS deployment flexures

In one embodiment, an actuator includes a moving frame coupled to a fixed frame by a plurality of elongated parallel motion flexures for generally parallel motion relative to the fixed frame and between an as-fabricated position and a deployed position. The flexures are disposed at a first angle relative to a line extending perpendicularly to both the moving frame and the fixed frame when the moving frame is disposed in the as-fabricated position, and at a second angle relative to that same line when the moving frame is disposed in the deployed position. Arcuate movement of the first frame relative to the second frame is controlled by constraining the first angle to a value of less than about half of the sum of the first and second angles.

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Arcadia, CA, United States of America

Ankur Jain