The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C (대한전기학회논문지:전기물성ㆍ응용부문C)

The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers (대한전기학회)
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An Optical Microswitch Integrated with Silicon Waveguides, Micromirrors, and Electrostatic Touch-Down Beam Actuators

실리콘 광도파로, 미소거물 및 접촉식 정 전구동기가 집적된 광스위치

  • 진영현 (한국과학기술원 디지털나노구동 연구단) ;
  • 서경선 (한국과학기술원 디지털나노구동 연구단) ;
  • 조영호 (한국과학기술원 디지털나노구동 연구단) ;
  • 이상신 ;
  • 송기창 (LG 전자기술원 소자재료연구소 마이크로시스템 그룹) ;
  • 부종욱 (LG 전자기술원 소자재료연구소 마이크로시스템 그룹)
  • Published : 2001.12.01
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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.

Keywords

References

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