Active Materials for Photonic Systems (AMPS)

摘要

The AMPS program has created the first 3-axis MEMS active fiber optic micro-aligner, which will allow for in-package alignment or fiber optic and microoptic components. The micro-aligner is a wafer level fabricated device, based on a combination of silicon micromachining and LIGA technology. The electrically controllable actuators demonstrate the high force and displacement necessary to overcome fiber optic cable, counterforce springs, friction, and wirebonds to perform in-package alignment of a fiber optic. AMPS has demonstrated movement of >20 microns in all three axes in an in-package configuration The first prototype device are currently small enough (4 x 4 x 0.5 cu mm) to fit into a standard 14 pin butterfly package. Future devices with the same forces and displacements can be made smaller than 1 x 1 x 0.5 cu mm thus allowing for multiple single mode fiber optic attachments inside a standard package. The AMPS program bas developed a design/analysis tool. This program allows for fully coupled analysis of properties. This program runs on Windows machines and comes complete with a User's Manual.