This report shows the development of a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) monolithic in-plane tunable optical filter in the Indium Phosphide and Silicon. We construct a tunable filter by putting one mirror of a waveguide-based Fabry-Perot interferometer on an electrostatically-actuated beam. This is actually the 1st demo of a waveguide-coupled MEMS tunable optical filter in any material system. Filters with a tuning range of 40 nm from a wavelength 1550 nm with a linewidth of 35 nm are shown. Future research will focus on enhancing the filter’s optical characteristics, restricted to etch-induced facet roughness, and integration with active photonic devices.
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Motivation
1.1.1 Telecommunications
1.1.2 Spectroscopy
1.2 Literature Review
1.2.1 Basic Concepts
1.2.2 Thermooptic Effect
1.2.3 Electrooptic Effect
1.2.4 Optical MEMS
1.2.5 Microring Resonators
1.2.6 Integrated Optics
1.2.7 Filter Comparison
1.3 Thesis
1.3.1 Objective
1.3.2 Organization
2 Design
2.1 Basics of Fabry-Pérot Filters
2.2 Design of Tunable Filter
2.3 Modeling
2.3.1 Waveguides
2.3.2 Filter Static Characteristics
2.3.3 Tunable Filtering
3 Fabrication
3.1 Indium Phosphide Process
3.1.1 Etching
3.1.2 Metalization
3.1.3 Final Preparation
3.2 Silicon Process
3.2.1 Through Etch
3.2.2 Rib Etch
3.2.3 Dicing
3.2.4 Aluminum Deposition
3.2.5 Final Preparation
4 Testing
4.1 Measurement System
4.2 Indium Phosphide Devices
4.2.1 Waveguides
4.2.2 Static Filters
4.2.3 Tunable Filters
4.3 Silicon Devices
5 Conclusion
5.1 Summary of Results
5.2 Future Work
A Transfer Matrices
A.1 Transmission Equations
A.2 Wavelength Dependent Index………