Performance and reliability assessment of a dielectric charging guard in MEMS optical switch systems

Ping Zhang; Emily Carr; Doug Keebaugh; Kelvin Chau

doi:10.1117/12.851714

4 February 2010 Performance and reliability assessment of a dielectric charging guard in MEMS optical switch systems

Ping Zhang, Emily Carr, Doug Keebaugh, Kelvin Chau

Proceedings Volume 7592, Reliability, Packaging, Testing, and Characterization of MEMS/MOEMS and Nanodevices IX; 75920Z (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.851714
Event: SPIE MOEMS-MEMS, 2010, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Optical MEMS switching technology has attracted attention in managing data flow due to its compactness and robustness. It allows hundreds of optical channels to be switched by micro-mirrors with very low power consumption. Furthermore, the ability to switch signals independent of data rates, formats, wavelengths and protocols is advantageous in many real world environments such as internet peering exchanges, undersea cable landing locations and data centers. All of these applications require a highly reliable and stable switching system. Dielectric isolation has a huge impact on major failure modes of capacitive MEMS devices such as breakdown and charging. This issue becomes more challenging in electrostatic MEMS optical switches since they usually operate at relatively high voltages. The charges trapped in this dielectric layer could cause interference in the electric field, resulting in erratic responses of the steering mirrors and instability of pointing accuracy over temperature and time, which greatly degrades the system performance. Aiming at reducing charging and preventing high voltage breakdown, a dielectric charging guard has been developed by using an oxide "fence" with extended breakdown path length that is shielded by conductive sidewalls of the silicon interposer. In this paper, the reliability tests as well as the performance impact to the optical switch will be presented, including characterizations of breakdown voltage, leakage current, and charging verses temperature. The test results demonstrate highly repeatable switching accuracy of micro-mirrors with very low drift at varied temperature. Failures induced by fabrication will also be discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Ping Zhang, Emily Carr, Doug Keebaugh, and Kelvin Chau "Performance and reliability assessment of a dielectric charging guard in MEMS optical switch systems", Proc. SPIE 7592, Reliability, Packaging, Testing, and Characterization of MEMS/MOEMS and Nanodevices IX, 75920Z (4 February 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.851714

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
8 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Electrodes

Mirrors

Microelectromechanical systems

Optical switching

Dielectrics

Oxides

Reliability

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years