MICRO-MECHANICAL THERMO STRUCTURE AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING SUCH MICRO-MECHANICAL STRUCTURE

摘要

The invention relates to a micro- mechanical thermal structure for modulating a light beam and a method for manufacturing such a structure. The micro-mechanical structure comprises two layers of material with different thermal expansion coefficients in a first direction and a second direction respectively, in which the first direction is transverse to the second direction and the two layers comprise an oriented polymer and the director of the molecules of the oriented polymer of the first layer is transverse to the director of the molecules of the oriented polymer of the second layer. An array of such micro-mechanical structures may form a thermo-optical modulator for modulating light. The method comprises a step of providing a mold with an orientation-inducing layer to obtain a molecular orientation in a mono- meric state of liquid crystalline monomers and a step of fixing the molecular orientation by photo-polymerization.