A Silicon Optical Modulator with 5 MHz Operation for Fiber-In-The-Loop Applications

We present the fabrication and performance of a micromechanical optical modulator for fiber-in-the-loop applications. Device performance is reported showing rise and fall times of less than 100 ns, greater than 10 dB optical contrast ratio at ambient temperatures from -50/spl deg/C to 90/spl deg/C, and evidence of reliability exhibited in operation at 500 kHz for over two months (2 trillion cycles) without noticeable loss in performance. Bit error rate measurements show potential performance at 1.5 Mb/s with a 10/sup -9/ bit error rate. Emphasis is placed on our efforts to produce a device which is practical, robust, and cheap to manufacture and package.