A silicon-based moving-mirror optical switch

Author

Dautartas, Mino F. ; Benzoni, Albert M. ; Chen, Yang C. ; Blonder, Greg E. ; Johnson, Bertrand H. ; Paola, Carl R. ; Rice, E. ; Wong, Y.-H.

Author_Institution

AT&T Bell Labs., Breinigsville, PA, USA

Volume

10

Issue

8

fYear

1992

fDate

8/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1078

Lastpage

1085

Abstract

A multimode 2×2 optical switch made from chemically micro-machined silicon piece parts is described. This switch uses microlenses, aligned to fibers by a silicon base, to expand the optical beam and relax alignment tolerances and a pivoting silicon mirrors as the switching mechanism. The moving mirror switch meets or exceeds all the requirements for FDDI applications. The switch loss is typically 0.7 dB and operates at 5 V and 30 mA. The switch insertion/deinsertion time is less than 10 ms, and the optical interruption time is less than 1 ms. The switch design, which minimizes alignments in fabrication and provides for z-axis assembly and the low cost of the high precision piece parts contribute to making this a low-cost switch to manufacture

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; integrated optics; mirrors; optical communication equipment; optical switches; silicon; 0.7 dB; 30 mA; 5 V; FDDI applications; alignment tolerances; high precision piece parts; insertion/deinsertion time; microlenses; moving-mirror optical switch; multimode 2×2 switch; optical beam; optical interruption time; switching mechanism; z-axis assembly; Chemicals; FDDI; Lenses; Microoptics; Mirrors; Optical beams; Optical device fabrication; Optical losses; Optical switches; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.156848

Filename

156848