External cavity diode lasers tuned with silicon MEMS

Author

Anthon, Doug ; Berger, Jill D. ; Drake, Joe ; Dutta, Subrata ; Fennema, A. ; Grade, John D. ; Hrinya, Stephen ; Ilkov, Fedor ; Jerman, Hal ; King, David ; Lee, Howard ; Tselikov, Alex ; Yasumura, Kevin

Author_Institution

Iolon Inc., San Jose, CA, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

17-22 Mar 2002

Firstpage

97

Lastpage

98

Abstract

In summary, silicon deep reactive ion etched (DRIE) MEMS actuators have enabled a small form factor, tunable laser source ideal for many DWDM applications. The performance of the MEM-ECL meets telecommunications requirements for optical power, side mode suppression, polarization extinction ratio, relative intensity noise, and linewidth. Frequency accuracy of ±1.25 GHz is obtained with closed loop control of the MEMS actuator voltage. Substantial immunity from external temperature fluctuations and vibrations can be achieved through a combination of thermo-mechanical design and servo control.

Keywords

actuators; micro-optics; micromechanical devices; optical communication equipment; optical noise; silicon; spectral line breadth; sputter etching; wavelength division multiplexing; DRIE-MEMS actuators; DWDM applications; MEMS actuator voltage; Si; Si deep reactive ion etched MEMS actuators; closed loop control; external cavity diode lasers tuning; external temperature fluctuations; linewidth; optical power; polarization extinction ratio; relative intensity noise; servo control; side mode suppression; small form factor; telecommunications requirements; thermo-mechanical design; tunable laser source; vibrations; Actuators; Diode lasers; Etching; Laser modes; Laser noise; Laser tuning; Micromechanical devices; Optical noise; Silicon; Tunable circuits and devices;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibit, 2002. OFC 2002

Print_ISBN

1-55752-701-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OFC.2002.1036230

Filename

1036230