Hello,

I have designed and built several drive electronic boards for operating
electrostatic micromirror arrays, ranging from 32 to over 300
elements.  The micromirrors I worked with had a gray scale operation, as
opposed to devices such as TI's DLP mirrors.  We applied a DC bias to the
mirror array so that a superimposed voltage ranging from zero to around 32V
would operate each mirror over its full range.   The driver board was
designed to be controlled by either a PC of a stand-alone DSP board by
various I/O methods.  I used 8-channel latching D/A converters to drive
high voltage op-amps circuits, to control each individual micromirror
element.  I also placed a resistor in between each amplifier output and its
associated micromirror element to prevent destructive failure of the
element in event of a snap closure short.  A number of high voltage
components are now available for use in these types of electronic
drivers.  One company that supplies them is Supertex:
http://www.supertex.com/.  If you have any questions, please contact me.

Sincerely,

Robert Dean
Auburn University

At 07:51 AM 8/26/03 -0700, you wrote:
>I am interested on comments regarding trends for driver requirements for
>MEMs mirrors ( optical switching)
>i.e. number of channels preferred 4, 8, 32 etc....voltages required 300,
>250, 200, other? any other comments specification requirement for current
>and future planned applications.
>
>Ronald Gantar
>Strategic Marketing Manager
>APEX Microtechnology
>5980 N. Shannon Road
>Tucson, AZ 85741-5230
>rgantar@apexmicrotech.com 
>(520) 690-8603
>
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