SELF-ALIGNMENT TECHNIQUE OF SURFACE-MICROMACHINED OPTICAL SWITCHES TO BULK-MICROMACHINED V-GROOVES

Abstract

We report a new self-alignment technique of surface-micromachined polysilicon structures to bulkmicromachined silicon V-grooves which are used to accommodate optical fibers. Most of the conventional surface micromachined optical structures have used thin guiding rails or marks on a silicon substrate to align optical fibers to microstructures, and thus they require careful manual positioning. We have newly developed a technique to hold fibers in V-grooves, which have been defined at the same time as optical microstructures, to eliminate fiber manipulation for alignment. The process is simple with only two additional masks to the existing surface micromachining process and can be generally applied to MEMS fabrication.