Wavelength-selective integrated optical MEMS filter in InP

Author

Datta, M. ; Pruessner, M.W. ; Amarnath, K. ; McGee, J. ; Kanakaraju, S. ; Ghodssi, R.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Maryland Univ., College Park, MD, USA

fYear

2005

fDate

30 Jan.-3 Feb. 2005

Firstpage

88

Lastpage

91

Abstract

This paper presents a low-power, electrostatically-actuated integrated optical filter on an InP MEMS platform. The micromachined filter achieves a resonant wavelength shift of 12nm (1513-1525nm) at a low operating voltage (7V). The filter consists of a half-wavelength long resonant cavity bound by two highly reflective distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirrors fabricated by lithography and dry-etching. The filter is integrated monolithically with a doubly-clamped suspended-beam capacitive microactuator and optical waveguides. This paper discusses the fabrication as well as experimental results, showing good agreement between the measured and simulated performance of the filter. The novelty of the device lies in its in-plane MEMS actuation scheme enabling easy integration with other waveguide-based planar integrated optical active and passive components on an InP optoelectronic chip.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; distributed Bragg reflectors; indium compounds; integrated optics; low-power electronics; micromachining; micromechanical devices; optical filters; 1513 to 1525 nm; 7 V; capacitive microactuator; distributed Bragg reflector mirrors; dry-etching; electrostatically-actuated integrated optical filter; integrated optical MEMS filter; lithography; micromachined filter; optical active component; optical passive components; optical waveguides; optoelectronic chip; planar waveguide; resonant cavity; resonant wavelength; wavelength-selective optical filter; Distributed Bragg reflectors; Indium phosphide; Integrated optics; Lithography; Low voltage; Micromechanical devices; Mirrors; Optical filters; Optical waveguides; Resonance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2005. MEMS 2005. 18th IEEE International Conference on

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8732-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2005.1453874

Filename

1453874