Widely tunable-constant bandwidth monolithic Fabry-Perot filter with a stable cavity design for WDM systems

The authors report the design and fabrication of micromechanically tunable filters using a novel stable resonator geometry. The filters consist of a 1/spl lambda/ air-gap cavity with two InP/air-gap Bragg reflectors. The design of the micromechanical structure ensures a stable resonator geometry under actuation that provides constant performance throughout the entire tuning range of 65 nm. The devices are micromachined from a monolithic all epitaxial InP-InGaAs structure that can be integrated with an InP-based photo detector or emitter in a low-cost component for coarse wavelength division multiplexing systems operating in the 1.3 or 1.55 μm band.