Bimorph actuators in thick SiO2 for photonic alignment

This paper proposes and tests a design of electro-thermal bimorph actuators for alignment of flexible photonic waveguides fabricated in 16 mu m thick SiO2. The actuators are for use in a novel alignment concept for multi-port photonic integrated circuits (PICs), in which the fine alignment is taken care of by positioning of suspended, mechanically flexible waveguide beams on one or more of the PICs. The design parameters of the bimorph actuator allow to tune both the initial relative position of the waveguide end-facets, and the motion range of the actuators. Bimorph actuators have been fabricated and characterized. The maximum out-of-plane de deflection of the bimorph actuator (with 720 mu m-long poly-Si) can reach 18.5 mu m with 126 : 42 mW, sufficient for the proposed application.