Movable vertical mirror arrays for optical microswitch matrixes and their electromagnetic actuation

Movable vertical mirror arrays optical microswitch matrixes and their electromagnetic actuation with microcoils are presented as an extension of previous results on a first prototype of microswitch (Helin et al., 2000) a new mechanical design is developed to further increase the density of integration of the optical bypass. Deep reactive ion etching and KOH etching are successively used to realize the whole structure getting the advantages of both (self-alignment between vertical smooth mirrors and fiber guides). Microcoils are fabricated in order to actuate the microswitches electromagnetically. Efforts are done to increase the electromagnetic force generated by the microcoils in order to allow down scaling the sizes and large displacements of the microswitch movable parts in the same dimensions as the optical fibers. A high aspect ratio SU8 pattern and the use of ferromagnetic materials should achieve these requirements.