JPH046009Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an optical deflection device that tilts a reflecting mirror in response to the generation of an electrical signal to deflect light in a desired direction.

A support plate having a reflective mirror surface on its upper surface is supported at a point, and a piezoelectric laminate that expands and contracts in the vertical direction when a voltage is applied is placed at the bottom of the support plate at a distance from the fulcrum, and the displacement end of the laminate is The present inventors have proposed an optical deflection device that comes into contact with the lower surface of the support plate and tilts the reflecting mirror surface as the piezoelectric laminate expands and contracts.

Incidentally, the tilting control of the reflecting surface is delicate, and therefore, due to long-term use, minute dents or wear may occur between the displacement end of the laminate and the contact surface of the lower surface of the support plate. , it is not possible to impart a predetermined inclination angle to the reflecting mirror surface, resulting in an error in the direction of deflection of light.

The present invention aims to solve this technical problem, and includes forming the displacement end of the piezoelectric laminate from a hard material, and at least the contact surface of the support plate with the displacement end. is made of the same hard material as described above.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a housing, which has a square bottom plate 2, a top plate 3 of the same shape with a circular hole 4 formed in the center, and four pillars 5a to 5 at its four corners.
They are connected and assembled by d. The pillar 5a
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a substantially L-shaped intermediate plate 6 is held between ~5c and the tip of a right-angled support portion 6a provided on the inner surface of the intermediate plate 6 is positioned at the center of the housing 1, A needle-shaped support spring 7 is made to protrude upward from the tip at a position that coincides with the center of the housing 1.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a support plate fixed and supported by the upper end of the needle-shaped support spring 7, and has a fixing boss 20 on the upper surface.
a mounting surface portion 10 to which the holder is screwed; and two connecting rod-like portions 11a and 11b that protrude along the X-axis and Y-axis shown in FIG. Consisting of The connecting rod-shaped portion 11
The tips of a and 11b protrude between the struts 5a and 5d and between the struts 5c and 5d. An L-shaped spring member 12 made of plate springs 13a and 13b protruding at right angles is held in the column 5d, and the tip of the plate spring 13a protruding in the direction of the column 5a is connected to the connecting rod-shaped portion 11a and the needle-shaped connecting spring 14a. Further, the tip of a leaf spring 13b protruding in the direction of the support column 5c is connected vertically by a needle-shaped connecting spring 14b, similar to the connecting rod-shaped portion 11b. The connection springs 14a, 14b
The connecting rod-shaped parts 11a, 11b and the leaf spring 13 are
a and 13b are connected in the vertical direction while being allowed to be slightly bent in the left-right direction.

A piezoelectric laminate 15a is located approximately midway between the needle-like support spring 7 and the needle-like connection spring 14a, and a piezoelectric laminate 15b is located approximately midway between the needle-like support spring 7 and the needle-like connection spring 14a. The lower surface is screwed onto the bottom plate 2 and supported in the vertical direction.

As shown in FIG. 4, the piezoelectric laminates 15a and 15b include a plurality of piezoelectric elements 17 polarized in the vertical direction.
are stacked one above the other with the same polarity facing each other, and input terminals 18, 18 are connected to each electrode of the same polarity.
By applying a voltage between them, each piezoelectric element 17 is distorted in the vertical direction, and the amounts of the distortions are superimposed to cause expansion and contraction in the vertical direction.

A hard ball 16 (displacement end) is fitted into the upper end of the piezoelectric laminates 15a and 15b, as shown enlarged in FIG. Point contact is made at the position to be used. The hard ball 16 is made of a hard material selected from hard metals such as stainless steel and chromium, and hard ceramic materials such as silicon nitride and alumina.

Further, a hard layer 19 made of the same hard material as the hard ball 16 is provided on a contact surface of the lower surface of the support plate 9 that comes into contact with the hard ball 16 . The hard layer 19
is formed by forming a thin groove t in the corresponding contact portion and filling the groove with the material. However, if the entire support plate 9 is made of the same hard material as the hard balls 16, the hard layer 19 is not required.

The fixed boss 20 screwed onto the support plate 9 is
It is loosely fitted into the circular hole 4 of the upper plate 3, and on the top thereof,
A mirror 21 whose upper surface is a reflective mirror surface 22 is fixed.

The operation of the above embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG.

When no signal voltage is applied to the piezoelectric laminates 15a and 15b, the mirror 21 has a reflective mirror surface 22 that is equal to the upper surface of the upper plate 3.

In order to deflect the light incident on the mirror 21 by a predetermined amount, the input terminals 18 of the piezoelectric laminates 15a and 15b,
A predetermined signal voltage is applied between 18 and 18.

This causes the piezoelectric laminates 15a, 15b to expand. At this time, the support plate 9 is point-supported on the middle plate 6 by the needle-like support spring 7, but when the support spring 7 is slightly bent, the support plate 9 is supported by the action of a lever using the support spring 7 as a fulcrum. The plate 9 can be tilted. Therefore, the mirror 21 on the support plate 9 is tilted by an angle proportional to the signal voltage with the support spring 7 located at its center as a fulcrum, and the reflecting mirror surface 22 is tilted at an angle proportional to the signal voltage. A predetermined angle of inclination is produced in the Y-axis direction. Therefore, the incident light is reflected in the desired direction. At this time, the ends of the support plate 9 are connected by leaf springs 13a, 13b and needle-like connection springs 14a, 14b with a slight amount of deflection allowed, and the tilting of the support plate 9 causes the plate to The springs 13a, 13b curve upward and bias the support plate 9 in the backward direction of FIG. 4. Therefore, when the signal voltage application between the input terminals 18 and 18 is released and the piezoelectric laminates 15a and 15b contract, the supporting plate 9 and the mirror 2 quickly follow this contraction.
1 moves back to the position shown in Figure 4.

Therefore, due to the expansion and contraction of the piezoelectric laminate 15a, the reflecting mirror surface 2
2 in the X-axis direction is controlled, and the piezoelectric laminate 1
The inclination of the reflective mirror surface 22 in the Y-axis direction is controlled by the expansion and contraction of the mirror 5b.

By changing the applied signal voltages to the piezoelectric laminates 15a and 15b to give different amounts of expansion and contraction, or timings of expansion and contraction, and by appropriately combining these, the mirror 21 can be adjusted to various values corresponding to the signal voltages. The tilt angle is given to produce multidimensional oscillation, and the reflecting mirror surface 22 can be deflected in any direction with respect to the incident light, and the angle can be freely shifted with good responsiveness to high-frequency pulsed light and the like.

During the rocking motion of the reflective mirror surface 22, the hard ball 16 lifts the support plate 9 every time the piezoelectric laminates 15a, 15b expand and contract, so that a load is always applied. However, as described above, since the hard ball 16 and at least the contact surface of the support plate 9 that contacts the hard ball 16 are formed of hard materials, wear due to such constant loads and depressions of the contact surface are unlikely to occur. The support plate 9
There is no deviation in the inclination angle, and it is possible to always stably incline at a predetermined angle.

In the above embodiment, the displacement end was the hard ball 16, but
It is not limited to this. The present invention can also be applied to a device in which only one piezoelectric laminate is provided and the mirror 21 is tilted in only one direction.

As clarified by the above description, the present invention includes the displacement ends of the piezoelectric laminates 15a and 15b;
Since the abutment surface of at least the displacement end of the support plate 9 is formed of the same hard material, it is possible to prevent the abutment surface from deteriorating over time due to the expansion and contraction of the piezoelectric laminates 15a and 15b. There are excellent effects such as the ability to tilt the reflective mirror surface 22 at a predetermined angle without error.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The accompanying drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 1 is a perspective view, Fig. 2 is a partially cutaway plan view, Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the main part, and Fig. 4 is a line taken along line A-A in Fig. 2. The sectional view and FIG. 5 are longitudinal sectional side views of the main parts. 1... Housing, 9... Support plate, 15a, 15b...
...Piezoelectric laminate, 16...Hard sphere, 19...Hard layer,
21...Mirror, 22...Reflecting mirror surface.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] 1. A support plate having a reflective mirror surface on its upper surface is supported at a point,
A piezoelectric laminate that expands and contracts in the vertical direction when a voltage is applied is arranged at the bottom of the support plate at a position away from the fulcrum, and the displaced end of the laminate contacts the bottom surface of the support plate, causing the piezoelectric laminate to expand and contract. In the optical deflection device that tilts the reflective mirror surface in accordance with the movement, the displacement end of the piezoelectric laminate is formed of a hard material, and at least the contact surface of the support plate with the displacement end is made of a hard material of the same material. An optical deflection device characterized in that it is formed of a material. 2. The light deflection according to claim 1, wherein the contact surface between the displacement end of the piezoelectric laminate and at least the displacement end of the support plate is formed of a hard metal such as stainless steel or chromium. Device. 3. Utility model registration claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the contact surface between the displacement end of the piezoelectric laminate and at least the displacement end of the support plate is formed of a hard ceramic material such as silicon nitride or alumina. optical deflection device. 4. The light deflection device according to claim 1, wherein the displacement end is constituted by a hard ball made of a hard material. 5. The light deflection device according to claim 1, wherein the entire supporting plate is made of a hard material.