Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
9-30-1990
Degree Name
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering - (M.S.)
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
First Advisor
William N. Carr
Second Advisor
Roy H. Cornely
Third Advisor
Durgamadhab Misra
Abstract
A novel microelectromechanical actuator has been designed for moving an optical input fiber into alignment with one of three stationary output fibers. This switching device thus can connect an input optical port to one of 3 selected optical ports. The actuation force is created by a vertical-drive armature measuring 0.5x2.7 mm2 mechanically tethered to the input optical fiber. A force of 2.33 mN is obtained from the linear acturator when the vertical stator armature gap is one micron and the applied three phase voltage is 140 Volts. The required force is a function of the input fiber length, e.g. 1.05 mN is required for an input fiber of length 1 cm. The friction force to be overcome in positioning the input fiber and armature is 1.22 mN based on a coefficient of friction of 2.5 and polysilicon to silicon nitride bearings. The armature moves orthogonally with respect to the electric field vectop between the principal stator and armature. Actuation force is derived from the fringe field at the armature. A total of 772 three phase pole groups comprise the stator configuration. The stator poles are arranged into 8 separate linear arrays of 42 pole groups each. This designed switching, i.e. "holding" the fiber in one of the three positions without applied power. The calculated value for signal attenuation of this switch is less than 0.09 dB.
Recommended Citation
Yang, Hsu-Nien, "Microengineered silicon beam switch for fiber optics" (1990). Theses. 2999.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/2999
