A Piezoelectric-Driven Three-Dimensional MEMS VOA Using Attenuation Mechanism With Combination of Rotational and Translational Effects

作者：Koh Kah How^*; Lee Chengkuo; Kobayashi Takeshi

来源：Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 2010, 19(6): 1370-1379.

DOI：10.1109/JMEMS.2010.2076785

• Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
• mirror
• optical microelectromechanical systems
• piezoelectric actuator
• PZT
• variable optical attenuator

A gold-coated silicon mirror (5 mm x 5 mm) actuated by piezoelectric Pb(Zr, Ti)O-3 (PZT) cantilever beams has been investigated for variable optical attenuator applications. The device is micromachined from a SOI substrate with a 5-mu m-thick Si device layer, with multilayers of Pt/Ti/PZT/Pt/Ti deposited as electrode materials. A large Si mirror plate and 1 x 10 arrayed PZT cantilevers arranged in parallel are formed after the release process. The ten cantilevers are designed to be electrically isolated from one another. A dual-core fiber collimator is aligned perpendicularly to the mirror in a 3-D light attenuation arrangement. Thus, three modes of attenuation mechanisms were investigated based on rotational and translational effects. A dynamic attenuation range of 40 dB is achieved at 1 V and 1.8 V for bending and torsional mode, respectively.

• 出版日期2010-12