Microelectromechanical systems for lightwave communication

Publisher Summary This chapter describes communication and lightwave system applications of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Applications of optical MEMS in telecommunications started in the 1990s when the focus was on the development of devices and fabrication technologies. Many innovative MEMS devices and optical designs have been introduced in the past decade. The telecom boom in the late decade accelerated the maturation of this technology. It is a key enabling technology for dynamic processing of optical signals. Several components have been transformed from laboratory prototypes into packaged products that meet reliability qualifications. Significant progress has been made in optical switches and cross-connects and various wavelength-selective devices. In telecommunications, MEMS switches provide cross-connects with large numbers of ports. A variety of wavelength selective devices, such as reconfigurable optical add–drop multiplexers employ MEMS. More recent devices include tunable lasers and micro disk resonators.