| Title |
An Optical Microswitch Integrated with Silicon Waveguides, Micromirrors, and Electrostatic Touch-Down Beam Actuators |
| Authors |
진영현(Jin, Yeong-Hyeon) ; 서경선(Seo, Gyeong-Seon) ; 조영호(Jo, Yeong-Ho) ; 이상신(Lee, Sang-Sin) ; 송기창(Song, Gi-Chang) ; 부종욱(Bu, Jong-Uk) |
| Keywords |
Optical switch ; Electrostatic actuator ; Micromirror ; Touch-down beam |
| Abstract |
We present an integrated optical microswitch, composed of silicon waveguides, gold-coaled silicon micromirrors, and electrostatic contact actuators, for applications to the optical signal transceivers. For a low switching voltage, we modify the conventional curled electrode microactuator into a electrostatic microactuator with touch-down beams. We fabricate the silicon waveguides and the electrostatically actuated micromirrors using the ICP etching process of SOI wafers. We observe the single mode wave propagation through the silicon waveguide with the measured micromirror loss of 4.18 pm0.25dB. We analyze major source of the micromirror loss, thereby presenting guidelines for low-loss micromirror designs. From the fabricated microswitch, we measure the switching voltage of 31.74V at the resonant frequency of 6.89kHz. Compared to the conventional microactuator, the present contact microactuator achieves 77.4% reduction of the switching voltage. We also discuss a feasible method to reduce the switching voltage to 10V level by using the electrode insulation layers having the residual stress less than 30MPa. |