Development and characterization of piezoelectrically actuated corner cube retroreflectors for applications in free-space optical sensor network.

In this paper, we report the development of an optical sensor network (OSN) based on piezoelectrically actuated corner cube retroreflectors (PA-CCRs). PA-CCRs were fabricated by microelectromechanical systems processes and assembled by aligning horizontally actuated mirrors and vertical side walls in a holder, which allows mass production. Fabricated PA-CCRs showed a tilting angle by more than 1.5 deg at 5 V bias voltage. A 3 dB cutoff frequency was measured to be in the range of 3.5 kHz. To show the feasilbility, an OSN was established based on fabricated PA-CCRs for on-off keying passive transmission links. The results demonstrated data transmission at a rate up to 5 kb/s.