A highly dense MEMS optical switch array integrated with planar lightwave circuit

We propose a novel MEMS 2/spl times/2 optical switch array integrated with a Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) for application to Optical Add Drop Multiplexing (OADM) in Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) transmission systems. This switch array consists of two chips connected together by flip chip bonding. One is the MEMS device which has 16 channel latched silicon actuators with micro-mirrors, and the other is a PLC which has a 16 channel 2 /spl times/ 2 cross type waveguide array. In order to achieve highly dense integration, the MEMS actuator has a long beam cantilever arranged with a 500 /spl mu/m period.