Digital MEMS for optical switching

Over the last few years an amazing amount of interest has emerged for applications of micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) in telecommunications. Silicon-based optical MEMS have proven to be the technology of choice for low-cost scalable photonic applications because they allow mass manufacturing of highly accurate miniaturized parts, and use materials with excellent mechanical and electrical properties. Applications include tunable lasers, optical switches, and tunable filters. The use of MEMS for optical switching has turned out to be most attractive since this application could revolutionize fiber optic telecommunications. In this article we discuss the technology, performance, and reliability of 2D MEMS optical switches. We show that this technology meets the scalability, performance, and reliability requirements for important applications in fiber optic networks.