Vertical Electrostatic MEMS Aligner with Integrated Silicon Nitride Optical Waveguides

This work proposes an electrostatic MEMS aligner with the capability of integrating optical waveguides onto its suspended mechanical structure. The proposed aligner, which has a structural silicon layer of
$59\ \mu \mathrm{m}$
, is anchored at two distinct points by a series of low stiffness beams along the anchors axis. A comb drive, upon excitation, can rotate the edge of the aligner vertically toward a point away from the substrate. Therefore, the vertical position of the integrated waveguide can be changed. The behavior of the aligner is studied by simulation and experimental measurements. The experimental results indicate that the aligner can eliminate the initial misalignment of
$0.350\ \mu \mathrm{m}$
between two integrated waveguides, i.e., one fixed and another moveable, when it is excited with a 90 V DC voltage. As a result, the optical insertion loss is reduced by an average of 3 dB in the wavelength range of 1575 nm to 1605 nm.