Experimental Investigation of Tunable Optical Filter based on MOEMS Actuated Ring Resonator

An integrated, multichanneled optical filter designed using the combination of optical devices (such as Ring resonators and optical waveguides) on a cantilever beam of silicon is described. This filter is actuated using MicroOptoElectroMechanical (MOEMS) system. When optical power is supplied to this filter, actuation takes place and due to which the refractive index of ring resonator changes due to the mechanical deformation. This change in the refractive index causes the output spectrum to change. Effect of this stress and strain on the beam has been taken into consideration. This study also involves frequency domain analysis of different Eigen frequencies and their response for various structural mechanics and electrostatics parameters. In order to accomplish this study different areas of Physics namely structural mechanics, Electrostatics, piezoelectric and Wave optics has been merged. This filter is very desirable because of its wide tuning range and its compatibility with IC based equipments used in current WDM networks.