Reconfigurable Optical Wavelength Multiplexer Using a MEMS Tunable Blazed Grating

This paper describes a free-space1 × Pcyclically tunable optical multiplexer based on a stationary tunable blazed grating (TBG). An analytical model is used in deriving a closed-form expression for the transmission of the deformable grating, given an actuation scheme that requires only (P$-$1) control signals. A 1×3 demultiplexer is implemented using a six-element TBG, and tuning over a free spectral range of 13.5 nm in C-band is demonstrated.