High-Voltage Amplifier Design for MEMS based Switching Arrays in Wavelength-Division Multiplexing Networks

The paper describes the design requirements of integrated high-voltage amplifiers for large MEMS based arrays which consist of electrostatically driven actuators. Such actuators are applied in optical switching arrays for cross connects in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks. Besides a new calculation approach for the efficiency of amplifier operation modes a new concept of level-shifter circuitry for switching output stages of high-voltage amplifiers is presented and compared with conventionally level-shifter circuits.