Air-Spaced Cylindricalprisms for Fast Thermo-Optic Switching

Author

Zhong, T. ; Zhang, X.M. ; Cai, H. ; Liu, A.Q.

Author_Institution

Nanyang Technol. Univ., Singapore

fYear

2007

fDate

10-14 June 2007

Firstpage

2409

Lastpage

2412

Abstract

This paper reports a design of double micromachined silicon cylindrical prisms separated by a thin air gap to enable fast thermo-optic switching. The fabricated structure has obtained an extinction ratio of 29.8 dB. This design is advantageous over conventional micromechanical switches for the absence of mechanical stability problems. The use of total internal reflection significantly enhances the sensitivity of switching to small refractive index change of only 5.2 times 10^-3, which allows an on-off switching at 2.2 mus by localized heating through a thermal resistor patterned on top of the prism.

Keywords

micromachining; microswitches; thermistors; thermo-optical effects; air-spaced cylindrical prisms; double micromachined silicon cylindrical prisms; fast thermo-optic switching; localized heating; mechanical stability problems; micromechanical switches; on-off switching; optical switch; thermal resistor; thermo-optic effect; thin air gap; time 2.2 mus; total internal reflection; Extinction ratio; Heating; Micromechanical devices; Reflection; Refractive index; Resistors; Silicon; Stability; Switches; Thermal resistance; Optical switch; cylindrical prisms; thermo-optic effect; total internal reflection;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference, 2007. TRANSDUCERS 2007. International

Conference_Location

Lyon

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0842-3

Electronic_ISBN

1-4244-0842-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SENSOR.2007.4300656

Filename

4300656