Tunable blazed gratings

Author

Li, Xiang ; Antoine, Christophe ; Lee, Daesung ; Wang, Jen-Shiang ; Solgaard, Olav

Author_Institution

Stanford Univ., CA, USA

Volume

15

Issue

3

fYear

2006

fDate

6/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

597

Lastpage

604

Abstract

In this paper, we report on the design, fabrication, and characterization of blazed gratings made tunable by electrostatic actuation. We combine KOH etching and deep-reactive ion etching (DRIE) to fabricate tunable blazed gratings (TBGs) on silicon-on-insulator wafers with optical-quality mirror surfaces on {111} crystalline planes. The actuators that are used to position the individual grating elements are designed to reduce rotation to levels acceptable for spectroscopic applications. We characterize the fabricated devices mechanically, verify the rotation-reduction design, and demonstrate the functionality of TBGs as tunable filters.

Keywords

diffraction gratings; electrostatic actuators; micro-optics; mirrors; sputter etching; KOH etching; crystalline planes; deep-reactive ion etching; electrostatic actuation; optical filter; optical grating; optical microelectromechanical systems; optical-quality mirror surfaces; rotation-reduction design; silicon-on-insulator wafers; tunable blazed gratings; tunable filters; Crystallization; Electrostatic actuators; Etching; Gratings; Mirrors; Optical device fabrication; Optical filters; Particle beam optics; Silicon on insulator technology; Spectroscopy; KOH etching; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS); optical filter; optical grating; optical microelectromechanical systems (MEMS);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JMEMS.2006.872241

Filename

1638487