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Micromachined silicon actuators with low driving voltage and high accuracy for optical switches and tunable filters

With the great demand for WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexer) optical communications, optical switches are expected to become essential components in future networks. A micromachined optical device has been developed for optical communications due to its high reliability, low power, low crosstalk, and low insertion loss. In this paper, we present two types of new lateral actuators for optical switches and tunable filters. The microactuator for an optical switch utilized triple-folded springs with higher compliance for low voltage operation, and electrostatic comb driver for large stroke with low power, respectively. For higher resolution of tunable filter, the microactuator employed a stroke reduction mechanism with meander-type springs. In order to verify the effectiveness of a proposed microactuators, we fabricated the prototypes of polysilicon microactuators for optical switch and tunable filter. The lateral microactuator consists of a polysilicon of 6.5 micrometers thickness as a structural layer and thermal oxide of 2 micrometers thickness as a sacrificial layer. The structures of silicon microactuators are patterned by RIE (Reactive Ion Etching), and finally released by using newly developed HF GPE (Gas- Phase Etching) process with virtually no stiction. We showed the theoretical and experimental driving characteristics of the fabricated microactuators and also discussed the optical properties of a designed optical switch with a focusing mirror.