3-V driven pop-up micromirror for reflecting light toward out-of-plane direction for VOA applications

Author

Lee, Chengkuo ; Lin, Yu-Shen ; Lai, Yen-Jyh ; Tasi, Ming Hung ; Chen, Chihchung ; Wu, Chia-Yu

Author_Institution

Asia Pacific Microsystems Inc., Hsinchu, Taiwan

Volume

16

Issue

4

fYear

2004

fDate

4/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1044

Lastpage

1046

Abstract

Novel axial aligned fiber-to-fiber variable optical attenuator (VOA) that used a pop-up micromirror to reflect the attenuated light toward out-of-plane was designed and characterized. Unlike axial-type VOA devices that suffer from large return loss and large operation voltage, U-shaped electrothermal actuator array only requires 3-V dc bias to achieve 37-dB attenuation in our new design. Insertion loss, return loss, and wavelength-dependent loss at attenuation of 3 dB were measured to be 0.3, -45, and 0.28 dB, respectively.

Keywords

light reflection; microactuators; micromirrors; optical attenuators; optical design techniques; optical losses; optical testing; -45 dB; 0.28 dB; 0.3 dB; 3 V; 3-V driven pop-up micromirror; U-shaped electrothermal actuator array; VOA applications; attenuated light; axial aligned fiber-to-fiber variable optical attenuator; dc bias; insertion loss; out-of-plane direction; reflected light; return loss; wavelength-dependent loss; Actuators; Attenuation measurement; Electrothermal effects; Insertion loss; Micromirrors; Optical attenuators; Optical design; Optical fiber devices; Optical losses; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2004.824964

Filename

1281865