Application of optical-MEMS in lightwave communications

Optical micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) have breached the gulf from laboratory curiosity to advanced development and early trial deployment in light wave-communications systems. The intensive investment in optical micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) in the last decade has led to many successful components that satisfy the requirements of lightwave communication networks. Lightwave micromachines now threaten to make possible functional structures for building tunable lasers and filters, dynamic gain-equalizers, chromatic dispersion-compensators, wavelength-add-drop multiplexers, and polarization-controllers that represent substantial improvements over the conventional state of the art. Depending on the design, these components can either be broadband (wavelength independent) or wavelength selective. In this paper, we review the current status and prospects for MEMS in lightwave communications, with particular emphasis on high-port-count core optical cross connects, Integration of MEMS and planar light wave circuits, micro resonators, and photonic crystals could lead to further reduction in size and cost, and discuss challenges of this technology.