Process and design considerations for surface micromachined beams for a tuneable interferometer array in silicon

Author

Aratani, K. ; French, P.J. ; Sarro, P.N. ; Wolffenbuttel, R.F. ; Middelhoek, S.

Author_Institution

Tech. Univ. of Delft, Netherlands

fYear

1993

fDate

7-10 Feb 1993

Firstpage

230

Lastpage

235

Abstract

A special surface micromachining process, using oxidized polysilicon sacrificial layer and poly-nitride/poly membranes, has been developed for realizing the monolithic integration of light modulators with silicon devices. The design and processing considerations for developing a compact micromachined silicon Fabry-Perot interferometer are presented. Initial tests have shown that these micromachined membranes represent a compact and effective light modulating method

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; etching; integrated optics; integrated optoelectronics; light interferometers; membranes; micromechanical devices; optical modulation; optical workshop techniques; oxidation; silicon; sputter etching; Fabry-Perot interferometer; Si; compact; design; elemental semiconductor; light modulators; monolithic integration; oxidized polysilicon sacrificial layer; photosensor; poly-nitride/poly membranes; processing; sacrificial etching; surface micromachined beams; tuneable interferometer array; two-step plasma etch; Biomembranes; Delay; Micromachining; Optical films; Optical interferometry; Optical modulation; Optical receivers; Optical transmitters; Process design; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 1993, MEMS '93, Proceedings An Investigation of Micro Structures, Sensors, Actuators, Machines and Systems. IEEE.

Conference_Location

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Print_ISBN

0-7803-0957-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.1993.296917

Filename

296917