Design and fabrication of a MEMS thermal actuator for 3D optical switching applications

Author

Varona, Jorge ; Tecpoyotl-Torres, Margarita ; Escobedo-Alatorre, Jesus ; Hamoui, Anas A.

Author_Institution

Centro de Investig. en Ing. y Cienc. Aplic., Univ. Autonoma del Estado de Mexico (UAEM), Toluca

fYear

2008

fDate

21-23 July 2008

Firstpage

31

Lastpage

32

Abstract

This paper presents a novel thermally-actuated vertical micromirror for optical communications. Fabricated in a standard surface micromachining process, this micromirror can achieve low insertion loss (< 1 dB) and is capable of operating at CMOS-compatible voltage levels. It has a measured maximum power consumption of only 50-mW and a switching speed in the order of 16 ms with 5-V drive.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; microactuators; micromachining; micromirrors; optical switches; 3D optical switching; CMOS-compatible voltage levels; MEMS thermal actuator; optical communications; surface micromachining; vertical micromirror; Actuators; Communication switching; Insertion loss; Micromachining; Micromechanical devices; Micromirrors; Optical design; Optical device fabrication; Optical fiber communication; Optical losses;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

IEEE/LEOS Summer Topical Meetings, 2008 Digest of the

Conference_Location

Acapulco

ISSN

1099-4742

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1925-8

Electronic_ISBN

1099-4742

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/LEOSST.2008.4590474

Filename

4590474