MEMS-Actuated Silicon Photonic Switches -- A Path Toward Programmable Si Photonics Circuits

Silicon photonics has emerged as a compelling platform technology for photonic integrated circuits, with applications ranging from optical interconnects to optical routers and signal processors.  High-speed modulators and transceivers have been successfully commercialized. However, silicon photonics is inefficient in switching optical signals. The refractive index change of free-carrier plasma, or the thermo-optic effect, is less than 1%. In addition, these effects are either too lossy or consume too much power.

In this talk, I will introduce silicon photonic MEMS. By adding MEMS actuators to physically move waveguides, 100% modulation of the refractive index is achieved. We have successfully integrated 4,096 vertical adiabatic coupler switching elements to implement 64x64 optical circuit switches in a 1-square-cm chip, with sub-microsecond switching speed. The on-chip loss of 0.058 dB/port (3.7 dB total) is lower than any reported integrated optical switches. In addition to optical switching, similar MEMS tuning elements can also be embedded in programmable photonic integrated circuits.

Speaker: Ming C. Wu, UC Berkeley