Tunable InP/air gap Fabry Perot filter for wavelength division multiplex fiber optical transmission

An InP-based widely tunable and highly selective surface micromachined Fabry Perot filter for /spl lambda/=1.55 /spl mu/m is demonstrated. We present for the first time transmission measurements in a fiber-to-fiber setup and show that the devices are compatible with the demands of WDM optical fiber transmission. The full width at half maximum of the device is approximately 0:4 nm with an insertion loss of -3 dB. The crosstalk to a 1.6 nm spaced channel is -20 dB. The entire tuning range is 62 nm for an actuation voltage of 14 V whereas the FWHM is kept below 1 nm over a 40 nm tuning range.