2000 International Conference on High-Density Interconnect and Systems Packaging Optical and RF MEMS Devices for Electronic Circuits

摘要

Optical and RF interconnects are critical to electronic circuits operating at high frequencies or operating for optical or wireless communication. Most of photonic and RF packaging problems are similar to the microelectronics ones; however, they do have some unique challenges. For photonic packaging, it is the precision alignment, and for RF packaging, it is the precision tuning. The trend is to achieve low-cost, passive alignments or tuning by designs and advanced technologies. However, it is always good to have active alignment or tuning solution methods available to achieve the best cost/performance ratio. MEMS devices provide us with such alternative solutions with sub-μm resolutions controlled by a tiny robot costing less than a dime. This paper will review some of the interesting applications using MEMS for optical beam steering with flip-up, rotation, and tilting movements. In addition, MEMS can be used as tunable capacitors and switches for RF tuning.