MICROMOTOR GRATING OPTICAL SWITCH

We describe polysilicon micromotors with diffraction gratings fabricated on the polished surface of the polysilicon rotor optical switching applications. The motors have rotor diameters of 0.5-2 mm with grating elements having periods of 1.80 and 3.86 mu m. These microswitches have rise times of 300 mu s and settling times of 500 mu s when driven by a 65-V switching pulse. The diffractive nature of the optical elements allows for multiple optical outputs from a single input beam. Both static and dynamic optical properties of the gratings are tested with a He-Ne laser at 633 nm. (C) 1995 Optical Society of America