Materials Development and Processing for Fabrication of a Microdynamical Optical Switch (REU SUPPLEMENT)

这项工作的目标是开发制造光纤网络的光微开关所需的材料和加工能力。该开关由一个聚合物通道波导组成，该波导制造在悬臂微机械梁上。该光束可以耦合到使用静电梳子驱动的两个固定聚合物导轨之一。所有三个聚合物导轨都通过v型槽对准耦合到光纤尾纤上。使用聚合物波导代替光纤大大减少了校准所需的运动（因此也减少了所需的开关功率）。微力学除了产生开关动作外，还使纤维对准和包装相对简单。这种装置的制造将需要高纵横比x射线光刻制造和聚合物加工的结合。由于金属具有优良的机械性能，因此采用金属材料制作微机械开关。光波导是用聚合物制造的，聚合物的光学特性可以根据各种应用进行定制。需要解决的材料挑战包括电镀金属薄膜机械性能的定制，聚合物光学性能的控制，以及对所用材料长期可靠性的理解。该装置代表了聚合物合成、x射线光刻和微机械加工。为这项工作开发的材料和工艺将在固态电路，传感器和执行器以及光子学的广泛应用中发挥作用。

The objective of this work is to develop the materials and processing capabilities required to fabricate an optical micro-switch for fiber optic networks. The switch consists of a polymer channel waveguide fabricated on a cantilevered micromechanical beam. This beam can be coupled to one of the two stationary polymer guides using an electrostatic comb drive. All three polymer guides are coupled to fiber pigtails via V-groove alignment. The use of polymer waveguides instead of fibers drastically reduces the reduces the required motion for alignment (and therefore the required switching power). Micromechanics, in addition to producing the switching action, makes fiber alignment and packaging relatively straightforward. Fabrication of such a device will require the marriage of high aspect ratio x-ray lithography fabrication and polymer processing. The micromechanical switch is fabricated in metal because of its superior mechanical properities. The optical waveguides are fabricated using polymers whose optical properties can be tailored for a variety of applications. The materials challenges to be addressed include the tailoring of the mechanical properties of electroplated metal films, the control of the optical properties of polymers, and the understanding of the long term reliability of the materials used. This device represents a synthesis of polymer, x-ray lithographic, and micromechanical processing. The materials and processes developed for this work will be useful for a wide array of applications in solid state circuits, sensors and actuators, and photonics.