Design & fabrication of out-of-plane electrostatic actuators for optical application

Author

Mu, Xiaohong ; Kahrizi, M. ; Landsberger, L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Concordia Univ., Montreal, Que., Canada

Volume

1

fYear

2003

fDate

4-7 May 2003

Firstpage

133

Abstract

This paper presents the results of on-going research on fundamental issues related to electrical & mechanical properties of microstructures. Attention is mostly focused on the structures used to fabricate optical switches/attenuators for fiber optic communication applications. In this work, we design and fabricate electrostatic actuators composed of micro-cantilever beams using MUMPs (multi-user MEMS processes) technology, discuss the electrical and mechanical properties of electrostatic cantilever beams in terms of the structural materials, thin-film stress, geometric shapes and dimensions. The relationships between the displacement and several physical properties are calculated, modeled and analyzed. Based on our modeling, simulation and analytical solutions, some conclusions regarding electrostatic actuators with thin film stress are summarized.

Keywords

electrostatic actuators; micromechanical devices; optical communication equipment; optical fibre communication; optical switches; attenuators; electrical properties; electrostatic actuators; fabricate optical switches; fiber optic communication; mechanical properties; microcantilever beams; microstructures; multiuser MEMS processes; Analytical models; Electrostatic actuators; Mechanical factors; Optical attenuators; Optical design; Optical device fabrication; Optical films; Stress; Structural beams; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2003. IEEE CCECE 2003. Canadian Conference on

ISSN

0840-7789

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7781-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CCECE.2003.1226361

Filename

1226361