OPTICAL SWITCH BASED ON MOVING POLYMER WAVEGUIDES AND SELF-LATCHING STRUCTURE

This paper describes a new type of optical switch, named as SWOMS (Self-latching Waveguides Optical MEMS Switch). The SWOMS is based on a novel micromachined bistable self-latching structure, which is fabricated on a SOI (silicon-on-insulator) wafer with a 35μm top silicon layer, and with polymer waveguides attached on it. Comparing to existing moving waveguide switches, SWOMS has some unique promising features such as gap-elimination and self-latching. Here, the structure, principle, and fabrication of SWOMS will be introduced.