InP MEMS Mach-Zehnder Interferometer Optical Switch on Silicon

In recent years, several on-chip MEMS switches on silicon photonics have been reported [1, 2]. These switches require tens of volts for the actuation, which is challenging for their application in photonic integrated circuits. In this abstract we present an on-chip MEMS Mach-Zehnder Interferometer, which presents a switching voltage of 4.4V with an extinction ratio above 15dB within a bandwidth of 34nm in the C-band. While the design can be implemented on different platforms as well, we use a InP membrane on a silicon substrate by an adhesive bonding technique [3], which provides the possibility to integrate our device with active components (amplifiers, lasers, detectors) on a single chip.