A MEMS-Based VOA With Very Low PDL

Bashir, Aneeqa; Katila, Pekka; Ogier, N.; Saadany, Bassam; Khalil, Diaa

doi:10.1109/lpt.2004.824647

Cited by 35 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…5 a CCD image of initial state of bright type VOA driven by a forward moving V-beam actuator; b CCD image of actuated state of bright type VOA driven by a forward moving V-beam actuator; c CCD image of initial state of dark type VOA driven by a backward moving V-beam actuator; d CCD image of actuated state of dark type VOA driven by a backward moving V-beam actuator much better PDL characteristics than the ones based on two reflection mirrors, e.g., retro-reflection type Lee 2006b). The rather low PDL for single reflection mirror type of devices has been reported by Bashir et al (2004) based on an electrostatic comb drive actuated reflective mirror, where the PDL is reported to be less than 0.1 dB for attenuation of less than 30 dB. The return loss is measured as small as 49~52 dB within 30 dB attenuation range.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Thus MEMS VOAs can reduce incoming light intensity in an analog control manner regardless the difference of wavelength and protocol. The function of controllably attenuating a light beam can be achieved by various methods, among previously reported MEMS VOAs, such as, by partially blocking the beam via inserting a beam shutter into the light beam path, i.e., the planar shutter type (Barber et al 1998;Marxer et al 1999;Liu et al 2003;Kim et al 2004); by changing the position of one or two in-plane movable mirrors relative to input/output fibers, to alter the coupling efficiency of light from/toward the fibers in terms of one reflection or two reflections configurations, respectively, i.e., the planar reflection (Chen et al 2003a, b;Lee 2005a;Bashir et al 2004)and retroreflection types Lee 2005b); by using an axial moving elliptical-mirror to modify the focal spot of reflected light beam toward the output fiber (Cai et al 2005); and by adopting a three-dimensional (3D) tilted mirror to redirect the reflected light beam direction toward the output fiber, where this tilted mirror is placed facing a convergent lens in front of end faces of two parallel fibers in a 3D configuration (Robinson 2000;Costello et al 2003;Isamoto et al 2004). All the aforementioned MEMS VOAs were based on electrostatic actuation mechanisms, i.e., the comb drive actuators and the parallel plate actuators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Variable optical attenuator using planar light attenuation scheme based on rotational and translational misalignment

Lee

2006

Microsyst Technol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the last decade, extensive developments of microelectromechanical systems based thermal actuator and/or electrothermal actuators have been dedicated to the applications, such as data storage devices, relays and optical switches, etc. In this paper, we demonstrated a novel planar micromechanism comprising a tilted mirror driven by a V-beam electrothermal actuator via a link beam. This electrothermally driven tilted mirror can have static displacement with a motion trace including rotational and translational movement. The rotational and translational misalignment of reflected light spot toward the core of output port fiber will lead to light attenuation. In other words, the attenuation is controlled in terms of the position of tilted mirror depending on driving dc voltage. This new micromechanism has granted us a more efficient way to perform the light attenuation regarding to the other kinds of planar variable optical attenuators. These devices were fabricated by the deep reactive ion etching process and can reach 30-dB attenuation at 7.5 V driving voltage. The polarization dependant loss is less than 0.1 dB within the 30-dB attenuation region. The static and transient characteristics of devices operated at ambient room temperature environment show good repeatability and stability.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variable optical attenuator using planar light attenuation scheme based on rotational and translational misalignment

Lee

2006

Microsyst Technol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It points out the designs using single reflection mirror will derive better PDL characteristics than the ones based on two reflection mirrors. The rather low PDL for single reflection mirror type of devices has been reported by Bashir A. et al based on a electrostatic comb drive actuated reflective mirror [6], where the PDL is reported to be less than 0.1 dB for attenuation of less than 30 dB. The back-reflection loss (BR) is measured as large as 50 dB in most cases.…”

Section: Device Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Development of electrothermal actuation based planar variable optical attenuators (VOAs)

Lee

Yeh

2006

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Several sorts of MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems)based have been demonstrated by using electrostatic actuation scheme up to date. The comb drive and parallel plate are the two most common electrostatic actuators that have been well studied in variable optical attenuator (VOA) applications. In addition to the known retro-reflection type of optical attenuation being realized by our new devices driven by electrothermal actuators in present study, a novel planar tilted mirror with rotational and translation moving capability is proposed by using electrothermal actuators as well. Using electrothermal actuators to provide said planar tilted mirror with rotational and translational displacement has granted us a more efficient way to perform the light attenuation for in-plane structure. The static and transient characteristics of devices operated at ambient room temperature environment show good repeatability and stability.

show abstract

“…By contrast, free-space coupling elements are usually designed to mitigate optical beam divergence phenomena associated with Gaussian beam (GB) propagation and achieve phase/mode matching. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Photonic applications in which the sources and destinations are separated by a free-space optical path (OP) such as fiber to fiber, 4 laser to fiber, 5-7 photonic crystal to fiber, 8 waveguide to fiber, [9][10][11] laser to laser [12][13][14][15][16] and intra chip coupling 17 have been reported. In many applications, a high coupling efficiency over a relatively long OP, within the submillimeter range and sometimes extending up to the centimeter range, is critical.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the coupling efficiency has a direct impact on the output power and tunable range of external cavity tunable lasers, 14 the finesse and free spectral range of Fabry-Pérot resonators 18 and the insertion loss and number of the input/output ports in optical switches, 19 as well as in optical interconnects. 17,20 Micro lenses in the form of lens array, 19 ball lenses, 21 graded-index lenses 4,11 or lensed fibers 22 are the most commonly used optical components for focusing and matching GBs. The use of lenses, however, increases the system complexity and cost due to the required assembly process, a major obstacle to system integration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silicon micromirrors with three-dimensional curvature enabling lensless efficient coupling of free-space light

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Miniaturized optical benches process free-space light propagating in-plane with respect to the substrate and have a large variety of applications, including the coupling of light through an optical fiber. High coupling efficiency is usually obtained using assembled micro-optical parts, which considerably increase the system cost and integration effort. In this work, we report a high coupling efficiency, monolithically integrated silicon micromirror with controlled three-dimensional (3D) curvature that is capable of manipulating optical beams propagating in the plane of the silicon substrate. Based on our theoretical modeling, a spherical micromirror with a microscale radius of curvature as small as twice the Gaussian beam Rayleigh range provides a 100% coupling efficiency over a relatively long optical path range. Introducing dimensionless parameters facilitates the elucidation of the role of key design parameters, including the mirror's radii of curvature, independent of the wavelength. A micromachining method is presented for fabricating the 3D micromirror using fluorinated gas plasmas. The measured coupling efficiency was greater than 50% over a 200-mm optical path, compared to less than 10% afforded by a conventional flat micromirror, which was in good agreement with the model. Using the 3D micromirror, an optical cavity was formed with a round-trip diffraction loss of less than 0.4%, resulting in one order of magnitude enhancement in the measured quality factor. A nearly 100% coupling was also estimated when matching the sagittal and tangential radii of curvature of the presented micromirror's surface. The reported class of 3D micromirrors may be an advantageous replacement for the optical lenses usually assembled in silicon photonics and optical benches by transforming them into real 3D monolithic systems while achieving wideband high coupling efficiency over submillimeter distances.

show abstract

A MEMS-Based VOA With Very Low PDL

Cited by 35 publications

References 5 publications

Variable optical attenuator using planar light attenuation scheme based on rotational and translational misalignment

Variable optical attenuator using planar light attenuation scheme based on rotational and translational misalignment

Development of electrothermal actuation based planar variable optical attenuators (VOAs)

Silicon micromirrors with three-dimensional curvature enabling lensless efficient coupling of free-space light

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About