Development of a variable optical attenuator using an electro-magnetic mechanical actuator

摘要

A novel variable optical attenuator has been developed. This VOA has excellent features of small size, low cost and linear attenuation characteristics against drive current. An electro-magnetic mechanical actuator is used. This actuator is composed of a flat coil with a thermal bonding film, a moving spring plate and a mirror. Sufficient performances for practical use are obtained such as an attenuation of 25dB at 40mA drive current, a low insertion loss of below 0.5dB, and a low wavelength dependent loss of below 0.3dB. Additionally, there is less attenuation deviation up to 10 million operations. The attenuation deviation is also enough small when vibration or shock is applied.