| Summary: | Existing 3D MEMS-based optical switches offer
good optical properties (low insertion loss, low
crosstalk), high reliability and low power consumption.
These switches utilize highly reflective micro-mirrors to
manipulate an optical signal inside the switch directly
without any conversions. They are used to build dynamically
reconfigurable, highly-scalable physical optical network
layer. As indicated by the simulation results of this
paper, many of existing micro-mirror designs do not have
their dynamic characteristics well optimized and this limits
the switching speed of the optical switch. In a 3DMEMS
switch, the coupling between the mechanical structure
(micro-mirror) and electrostatic field (electrodes) results
in dynamic coupled rotation of the micro-mirror about its
axes, known as the cross-axis coupling effect. The coupling
nature of micro-mirror rotation makes its control difficult.
In this paper,we present the simulation case studies
and a simple optimization technique leading to decoupled
rotation of the micro-mirror about two perpendicular axes.
This helps to reduce the switching time of the switch while
keeping the same manufacturing process and only minimal
design changes.
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