In this paper, the authors present a continuous membrane deformable mirror array based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) bulk micromachining technology for applications in adaptive optics. In order to facilitate the use of the device layers of SOI wafers for the reflective surface and electrostatic actuators, the fabrication of the micromirror array is separated from the electronics chip, and then they are bonded together using the flip-chip assembly. The optical reflective membrane formed by the device layer of one SOI wafer is of high quality in terms of flatness and surface roughness; the stroke space is mainly determined by the height of the device layer of another wafer. The simulation results of the actuator performance by the finite element analysis method shows that the stroke is up to 2 mu m at about 70 V actuation voltage and the frequency is about 17.8 kHz.
