Patent ID: 6750998
Filing Date: 2004-06-15
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
An electro-mechanical grating device comprising:a base having a surface; a bottom conductive layer provided above the base; a spacer layer is provided and a longitudinal channel is formed in the spacer layer, wherein the spacer layer defines an upper surface and the channel having a first and a second opposing side wall and a bottom; a plurality of spaced apart ribbon elements disposed parallel to each other and spanning the channel, the ribbon elements are fixed to the upper surface of the spacer layer on each side of the channel and each of the ribbon elements are provided with a conductive layer; a mechanical stop provided between the bottom conductive layer and the bottom of the channel wherein the mechanical stop forms a rigid barrier that is separated from a lower ribbon surface of the ribbon elements by a distance h0, and that causes actual deflection distance of the ribbon elements to be limited to h0 upon application of a pull-down voltage, thus reducing breakage of the ribbon elements, and wherein dmax>h0>&lgr;/4, where dmax is the ribbon deflection at which pull down occurs and &lgr; is a wavelength of light to be deflected by the electro-mechanical grating device.