Fabrication and Measurement of a 1×2 Optical Switch with Fiber-Switching Design

In this work, the method of a dual-thickness SOI process is applied to fabricate a 1×2 optical switch which employs fiber-switching mechanism. The switch includes comb-drive actuators, folded beams suspensions and fiber holders. A novel SOI process which can create suspended micro structures with two different thicknesses is also introduced to fabricate the device. The actuators of the switch move the input fiber from one channel to the other with an input voltage of 100 Volts. Experimental results are provided and transient behaviors are also measured. 0.92 dB and 0.89 dB are the measured average insertion losses in the two output channels. The typical switching time is about 3.5ms.