Abstract
A new micromachining process for large-scale optical cross-connects is
presented. It satisfies the high-accuracy optical alignment required for
free-space optics. A self-aligned batch-process allowing the simultaneous
fabrication of vertical mirrors and fiber guides is performed with only
one-mask. This process is based on bulk micromachining of (100) silicon. A
first demonstration is performed on a 2 x 2 elementary cell then, it is
extended to the fabrication of larger mirror arrays. Promising performances
such as insertion loss lower than 0.5 dB, sub-millisecond switching time (0.3
ms) and reliable operation (more than 20 million cycles) are demonstrated on a
bypass switch. An improved fabrication process, leading to an increase of
integration density is also presented. It is based on the combination of deep
dry-etching and anisotropic wet-etching.
© 2000 IEEE
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