Electromechanical Analyses of 1 x n MEMS-based Optical Switch with Microplate Reflector

We analyzed the electromagnetic performance of a novel optical switch in a form of microelectromechanical (MEMS) device with a thin metallic microplate reflector supported by four flat metallic springs on its sides. The reflector tilts under the electrostatic actuation in two planes and part of its initially flat surface acquires some curvature. In this way the reflector steers the optical input beam to one of up to eight positions corresponding to the output ports and focuses the optical beam on this port. We evaluated analytically the reflector displacement against the actuator driving voltage under realistic parameters of the optical switch. Then we obtained the reflector tilt and curvature under nominal actuator driving voltage by means of numerical modeling of the switch with the commercial design and simulation software CoventorWare
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. In addition, we looked at a possibility of reducing the switch driving voltage at the expense of spring stiffness. Our results confirm the possibility of optical switching with this novel device.