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CSIC TIC012- ROBUST LOW –COST SYSTEMS FOR LIGHT BEAM HANDLING THROUGH ELECTROMAGNETICALLY ACTUABLE FLUIDS
A Spanish research institute has patented a new concept of optical systems, based on fluids actuable through electromagnetic fields. This allows the manipulation of light rays. The invention relates to a system that has a very high robustness since it does not have mobile parts. In addition, its technology is low-cost and extremely simple. The research institute is looking for industrial partners interested in its exploitation.
Specification sheet:
DESCRIPTION

Nowadays, there exist several configurations that allow the orientation of an optical beam. Basically, they are based in rotation/translation micro mirrors. To obtain the adequate positioning of such mirror, it has been developed extremely complex –and straightforwardly expensive- and fragile structures, mainly in comb-drive configuration. Such electrodes only allow the displacement in one dimension and due to the high voltage required, the excessive power consumption is not assumable. Moreover, the simultaneous operation of an array of such devices will have as main drawback –besides from its high complexity-, the non-linear displacement of the mirrors as a function of the applied voltage.

This invention completely replaces the orientable micro mirrors by fluids that can be actuated with electromagnetic fields. This replacement will solve the problems of fragility and technological complexity of the pre-existing systems for switching/routing optical beams. Moreover, under some conditions, the working principle of the system can be based on two phenomena that can actuate jointly or separately: the light absorption and the reflection from the fluid.

Under an electromagnetic field, such liquids can be displaced and/or its shape can be varied as a function of the gradient of the applied field. Hence, it is possible to modify the optical path of a given ray beam incident on the liquid without requiring either mechanical movable parts or electrical connections. Moreover, such system is robust and extremely versatile, since a replacement of the electromagnetic field source means the modification of the fluid shape and a new optical path will be obtained

INNOVATIVE ASPECTS

The proposed system means a significant improvement in the handling of light beams, increasing its robustness and simplifying both its technology and its operation principle. Moreover, its power consumption is reduced to a minimum value. The versatility of the proposed system allows replacing the extremely fragile movable mirrors by robust actuable liquids. Then, since the shape of the fluid will be fixed by the electromagnetic field source , it is possible to develop more versatile and challenging optical systems for light handling at a minor cost.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

Standard systems successfully allow the light handling. Nevertheless, they also have severe limitations that cause a dramatic increase of the production costs, being therefore used in very few application fields: They are technologically complex, which basically means that its production costs are high. Structurally, they are fragile and their power consumption is high. This invention proposes the replacement of the micromirrors by actuable fluids.

This will have the following advantages: the technology required for its fabrication will be substantially simplified, being then suitable to be used in applications where nowadays, due to its cost, are not economically suitable. The absence of fragile/movable parts confers the system an extreme robustness, which opens several applications until now unreachable. Finally, its power consumption has been reduced, resulting in a simpler monitoring electronics

KEYWORDS

light management, micromirrors, microoptics, variable optical attenuators, optical switches, optical routers, actuable liquids

PATENT

ES200501009, PCT/ES06/070051, applied for at 2005/4/26

CONTACT

Francisco Alonso
email: f.alonso@orgc.csic.es
phone: +34 91 585 53 52

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