Broadband Compact Single-Pole Double-Throw Silicon Photonic MEMS Switch

Abstract

Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) benefit from the technology advances in the semiconductor industry to incorporate an ever-increasing number of photonic components on a single chip to create large-scale photonic integrated circuits. We here present a broadband, compact and low-loss Silicon Photonic MEMS switch based on a Single-Pole Double-Throw (SPDT) architecture, where curved electrostatic actuators mechanically displace a movable input waveguide to redirect the optical signal on chip efficiently to either of two output waveguides. The photonic switch has been fabricated in an established silicon photonics technology platform with custom MEMS release post-processing. With a compact footprint of 65× 62 μ m2, the switch exhibits an extinction ratio exceeding 23 dB over 70 nm optical bandwidth, a low insertion loss and a fast response time below 1μ s, meeting the requirements for integration in large-scale reconfigurable Photonic Integrated Circuits. [2020-0391].