Abstract:

Optical communication systems are the premier conduit for providing broadband data across continents, nations, cities, neighborhoods, and are now starting to penetrate into private homes. This spectacular achievement is the culmination of years of research and development efforts in diverse fields. Recently we are witnessing the evolution of these communication systems towards optical networking. The advent of optical networking has been enabled by a suite of complementary optical subsystems that are pivotal to the operation and management of these networks. These optical microsystems directly interact with the optical signal and-through functionality afforded by design-are able to filter, switch, attenuate, and adapt the optical communication channels carried by the network. In this talk I will review a sampling of these enabling devices and focus on the MEMS technology required for its implementation.

Publisher's Version