MEMS on silicon for integrated optic metrology and communication systems

 Integrated optic micro-electromechanical systems (IO-MEMS) based on silicon-, Al₂O₃-SiO₂ and TiO₂-SiO₂ waveguides, doped with Ti, Cr, and Er on silicon substrates allow to generate complex metrology and optical communication systems. They exhibit low loss across a wide spectral range, occupy small space, and exhibit high functionality at low production cost. The waveguides are deposited by CVD and patterned by anisotropic plasma etching. The micro-electromechanical structures are formed by standard micro-machining processes and anodic bonding of silicon-glass. An integrated optical pressure sensor using the interferometer principle, a gas monitor for the near and middle infrared using elevated silicon single mode waveguides, an electrostatic-tuned Ti:/Cr:-sapphire laser, and a UV-VIS-NIR-spectrometer including integrated broad banded light sources represent metrology systems. Optical communication systems are described like a waveguide grating based wavelength demultiplexer, an optical transceiver using self aligned detector and emitter as well as a tapered fibre coupler, and an integrated optical amplifier. Received: 10 July 2001/Accepted: 15 August 2001 This work was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Ministry of Research and Technology and the City of Hamburg. This paper was presented at the Workshop “Optical MEMS and Integrated Optics” in June 2001.