Date of Award

9-12-2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Michael A. Marciniak, PhD

Abstract

While advantages such as good thermal stability and processing-chemical compatibilities exist for common monolithic-integrated micro-electro-mechanically tunable filters (MEM-TF) and MEM-tunable vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (MT-VCSEL), they often require full processing to determine device characteristics. Alternatively, the MEM actuators and the optical parts may be fabricated separately, then subsequently bonded. This "hybrid approach" potentially increases design flexibility. Since hybrid techniques allow integration of heterogeneous material systems, "best of breed" compound optoelectronic devices may be customized to enable materials groups to be optimized for tasks they are best suited. Thus, as a first step toward a hybrid (AlxGa1-xAs-polySi) MT-VCSEL, this dissertation reports the design, fabrication, and demonstration of an electrostatically actuated hybrid MEM-TF. A 250x250-µm2, 4.92-µm-thick, Al0.4Ga0.6As-GaAs distributed Bragg reflector was successfully flip-bonded to a polySi piston electrostatic actuator using SU-8 photoresist as bonding adhesive. The device demonstrated 53nm (936.5 - 989.5nm) of resonant wavelength tuning over the actuation voltage range of 0 to 10 V.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-DS-ENG-07-23

DTIC Accession Number

ADA472302

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