WDM micromachined tunable laser

摘要

An integrated MEMS tunable laser of ～ 2 mm X 1.5 mm size is demonstrated in this paper. The tunable laser is formed by the integration of a surface-micromachined 3D micromirror with a Fabry-Perot laser diode and an optical fiber. The micromirror can be driven to translate by a comb drive to change the external cavity length of laser diode, enabling the wavelength tuning. A tunable range of 16 nm is obtained, which covers 20 channels of WDM systems spaced by 100GHz. The three-mirror Fabry-Perot cavity model is modified to explain the continuous wavelength change as well as the mode hopping. An array of the tunable laser is potential to supply light sources for multiple channels of WDM systems.