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  4. Silicon photonic MEMS variable optical attenuator
 
conference paper

Silicon photonic MEMS variable optical attenuator

Graziosi, Teodoro  
•
Sattari, Hamed  
•
Seok, Tae Joon
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January 1, 2018
Moems And Miniaturized Systems Xvii
Conference on MOEMS and Miniaturized Systems XVII

We present a design for an on-chip MEMS-actuated Variable Optical Attenuator (VOA) based on Silicon Photonic MEMS technology. The VOA consists of 30 individual mechanically movable MEMS cantilevers, suspended over an integrated, 1 mu m wide bus waveguide, each terminating with two optical attenuation bars. By exploiting the pull-in instability, electrostatic actuation allows to move the individual cantilevers into proximity of the waveguide, leading to scattering of the evanescent field and thus attenuation of the remaining optical power in the waveguide. Electrodes are placed below the cantilevers for electrostatic actuation. Mechanical stoppers are used to avoid contact between the cantilevers and the electrodes and to keep the bars at a precisely defined distance of 60 nm away from the bus waveguide. The attenuator provides nearly zero insertion loss in OFF state, while in ON state, the attenuation range is defined by the number of actuated digital attenuation cantilevers and can be adjusted in discrete increments of only 1.2 dB. Owing to the small size, fast microsecond scale response time can be achieved, and electrostatic MEMS actuation allows for broadband and low-power operation. Our design exhibits a compact footprint of 30 mu m x 45 mu m, attenuation from 0 dB to 36 dB, while keeping return loss below 27 dB. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first presentation of a design of a VOA in Silicon Photonic MEMS technology.

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Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1117/12.2317507
Web of Science ID

WOS:000453745500015

Author(s)
Graziosi, Teodoro  
Sattari, Hamed  
Seok, Tae Joon
Han, Sangyoon
Wu, Ming C.
Quack, Niels  
Date Issued

2018-01-01

Publisher

SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING

Publisher place

Bellingham

Published in
Moems And Miniaturized Systems Xvii
ISBN of the book

978-1-5106-1576-2

Series title/Series vol.

Proceedings of SPIE

Volume

10545

Start page

105450H

Subjects

Engineering, Electrical & Electronic

•

Optics

•

Imaging Science & Photographic Technology

•

Engineering

•

Optics

•

Imaging Science & Photographic Technology

•

silicon photonic

•

mems

•

optical attenuation

•

electrostatic actuation

•

scattering

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
GR-QUA  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
Conference on MOEMS and Miniaturized Systems XVII

San Francisco, CA

Jan 30-31, 2018

Available on Infoscience
January 3, 2019
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/153305
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