An optical scanning device includes a reflector, a rotator, a first torsion beam and a second torsion beam, a first support part, a second support part, a first elastic layer, and a second elastic layer. The first elastic layer is superposed on the first torsion beam. The second elastic layer is superposed on the second torsion beam. A vertical dimension of an active layer is smaller than a horizontal dimension of the active layer in a cross section orthogonal to a direction in which the rotator is interposed between the first torsion beam and the second torsion beam. A material of the first elastic layer and the second elastic layer is higher in fatigue life than metal.

An optical module includes a support layer, a device layer which is provided on the support layer, and a movable mirror which is mounted in the device layer. The device layer has a mounting region in which the movable mirror is mounted, and a driving region which is connected to the mounting region. A space corresponding to at least the mounting region and the driving region is formed between the support layer and the device layer. The mounting region is disposed between a pair of elastic support regions included in the driving region and is supported by the pair of elastic support regions.

A base, which has a main surface and a back surface on an opposite side from the main surface and is made of metal, an optical surface provided on the main surface, and a vibrating element provided on the main surface or the back surface are included, in which the base has a support portion, a first extending portion and a second extending portion extending from the support portion, a movable portion disposed between the first extending portion and the second extending portion, and a first connecting portion connecting the first extending portion and the movable portion to each other, and a second connecting portion connecting the second extending portion and the movable portion to each other.

A micro-electronic non-landing mirror system includes a substrate, at least two supporting assemblies, at least two driving electrodes, a rotating mirror, and a driving circuit. The rotating mirror is elastically supported on the supporting assemblies through elastic reset assemblies. When the driving circuit applies a driving voltage, the rotating mirror moves closer to the driving electrode to which the driving voltage is applied within a range of movement that does not land on the substrate. When the driving circuit removes the driving voltage, the rotating mirror gets back to move away from the driving electrode under elastic restoring force of the elastic reset assemblies. Each elastic reset assembly includes at least two elastic reset units connected to different corners of the rotating mirror by a corresponding one supporting assembly. Each elastic reset unit is configured for providing the rotating mirror with at least two rotational degrees of freedom.

A control device for controlling a switching converter includes a switch controller that generates a control signal with a switching period for controlling switching of a switch of the switching converter and setting a first interval in which a current flows in the switch, a second interval in which energy is transferred onto a storage element of the switching converter, and a third, wait, interval, at the end of the second interval. The duration of the first interval is determined based on a control voltage indicating the output voltage. A pre-distortion stage receives the control voltage and generates a pre-distorted control voltage as a function of the control voltage and a relationship between one of the first and third time intervals and the switching period, wherein the switch controller is configured to control a duration of the first interval based on the pre-distorted control voltage.

A micro-electro-mechanical device, wherein a platform is formed in a top substrate and is configured to turn through a rotation angle. The platform has a slit and faces a cavity. A plurality of integrated photodetectors is formed in a bottom substrate so as to detect the light through the slit and generate signals correlated to the light through the slit. The area of the slit varies with the rotation angle of the platform and causes diffraction, more or less marked as a function of the angle. The difference between the signals of two photodetectors arranged at different positions with respect to the slit yields the angle.

A mirror unit 2 includes a mirror device 20 including a base 21 and a movable mirror 22, an optical function member 13, and a fixed mirror 16 that is disposed on a side opposite to the mirror device 20 with respect to the optical function member 13. The mirror device 20 is provided with a light passage portion 24 that constitutes a first portion of an optical path between the beam splitter unit 3 and the fixed mirror 16. The optical function member 13 is provided with a light transmitting portion 14 that constitutes a second portion of the optical path between the beam splitter unit 3 and the fixed mirror 16. A second surface 21b of the base 21 and a third surface 13a of the optical function member 13 are joined to each other.

An apparatus comprising: a thermally-actuated microactuator configured to deflect a component in dependence on an applied stimulus; and an extender having a length configured to increase deflection of the component by the microactuator, wherein the extender comprises one or more voids.

Techniques to be described herein are based upon the combination of a digital lock-in amplifier approach with a numerical method to yield accurate estimations of the amplitude and phase of a sense signal obtained from a movement sensor associated with a resonant MEMS device such as a MEMS mirror. The techniques described herein are efficient from a computational point of view, in a manner which is suitable for applications in which the implementing hardware is to follow size and power consumption constraints.

A MEMS device includes: a first beam and a second beam that are symmetrically disposed with respect to a first rotation axis of a mirror portion, in which a third beam is disposed on a side opposite to the first beam and the second beam with reference to a line that is orthogonal to the first rotation axis and passes through a center of gravity of the mirror portion.