Optical fibre switches based on full wafer silicon micromachining

An optical (1 × 2) moving-fibre switch with bistable operation is presented. The low cost fabrication process based on bulk anisotropic Si etching for thermal actuators with cross sections of 80 × 150 µm 2 is described. V-grooves are used for a precise alignment of the optical fibres. Switches and switch arrays are fabricated with high yield and high mechanical stability. An insertion loss of 2 dB including MT-connector losses and a cross talk below the detection limit (-60 dB) are measured. The thermally driven actuators operate with a power <700 mW which is, due to the bistable operation, needed for 100 ms only.