A Piezoelectric-Driven Three-Dimensional MEMS VOA Using Attenuation Mechanism With Combination of Rotational and Translational Effects

Author

Koh, Kah How ; Lee, Chengkuo ; Kobayashi, Takeshi

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Nat. Univ. of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Volume

19

Issue

6

fYear

2010

Firstpage

1370

Lastpage

1379

Abstract

A gold-coated silicon mirror (5 mm 5 mm) actuated by piezoelectric (PZT) cantilever beams has been investigated for variable optical attenuator applications. The device is micromachined from a SOI substrate with a 5 μm thick Si device layer, with multilayers of Pt/Ti/PZT/Pt/Ti deposited as electrode materials. A large Si mirror plate and 110 arrayed PZT cantilevers arranged in parallel are formed after the release process. The ten cantilevers are designed to be electrically isolated from one another. A dual-core fiber collimator is aligned perpendicularly to the mirror in a 3-D light attenuation arrangement. Thus, three modes of attenuation mechanisms were investigated based on rotational and translational effects. A dynamic attenuation range of 40 dB is achieved at 1 V and 1.8 V for bending and torsional mode, respectively.

Keywords

cantilevers; gold; lead compounds; micro-optomechanical devices; micromachining; micromirrors; optical attenuators; optical collimators; piezoelectric actuators; platinum; silicon-on-insulator; titanium; zirconium compounds; 3D light attenuation; Au; PbZrTiO₃; Pt-Ti; SOI substrate; Si; attenuation mechanism; dual-core fiber collimator; electrode materials; gold-coated silicon mirror; piezoelectric cantilever beams; piezoelectric-driven three-dimensional MEMS VOA; rotational effects; size 5 mum; translational effects; variable optical attenuator; voltage 1 V; voltage 1.8 V; Attenuation; Micromechanical devices; Mirrors; Optical attenuators; Piezoelectric attenuators; Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS); PZT; mirror; optical microelectromechanical systems; piezoelectric actuator; variable optical attenuator;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JMEMS.2010.2076785

Filename

5597910