Process and design considerations for surface micromachined beams for a tuneable interferometer array in silicon

A special surface micromachining process, using oxidized polysilicon sacrificial layer and poly-nitride/poly membranes, has been developed for realizing the monolithic integration of light modulators with silicon devices. The design and processing considerations for developing a compact micromachined silicon Fabry-Perot interferometer are presented. Initial tests have shown that these micromachined membranes represent a compact and effective light modulating method.<>