Title :
Digital MEMS for optical switching
Author :
De Dobbelaere, P. ; Falta, K. ; Gloeckner, S. ; Patra, S.
fDate :
3/1/2002 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
Over the last few years an amazing amount of interest has emerged for applications of micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) in telecommunications. Silicon-based optical MEMS have proven to be the technology of choice for low-cost scalable photonic applications because they allow mass manufacturing of highly accurate miniaturized parts, and use materials with excellent mechanical and electrical properties. Applications include tunable lasers, optical switches, and tunable filters. The use of MEMS for optical switching has turned out to be most attractive since this application could revolutionize fiber optic telecommunications. We discuss the technology, performance, and reliability of 2D MEMS optical switches. We show that this technology meets the scalability, performance, and reliability requirements for important applications in fiber optic networks
Keywords :
digital communication; micromechanical devices; optical fibre networks; photonic switching systems; 2D MEMS optical switches; Si; digital MEMS; electrical properties; fiber optic networks; fiber optic telecommunications; low-cost scalable photonic applications; manufacturing; mechanical properties; micro electro-mechanical systems; miniaturized parts; reliability; scalability; silicon-based optical MEMS; telecommunications; tunable filters; tunable lasers; Manufacturing; Mechanical factors; Micromechanical devices; Optical filters; Optical materials; Optical switches; Photonics; Telecommunication network reliability; Telecommunication switching; Tunable circuits and devices;
Journal_Title :
Communications Magazine, IEEE
