Turnable free space optical filters
AssigneeNokia Solutions and Networks Oy
InventorMark Earnshaw
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical apparatus, comprising a semiconductor substrate, a dielectric layer located on the semiconductor substrate, wherein a membrane portion of the dielectric layer is located over a cavity in a surface of the semiconductor substrate, a resistive heater located on the membrane portion, the resistive heater being controllable by a current applied to the resistive heater and an etalon optical filter located on the resistive heater and over the cavity, an optical passband of the etalon optical filter being wavelength tunable by the resistive heater. A method of manufacturing the optical apparatus is also disclosed.
Claims20
An optical apparatus, comprising:
- a semiconductor substrate;
- a dielectric layer located on the semiconductor substrate, wherein a membrane portion of the dielectric layer is located over a cavity in a surface of the semiconductor substrate;
- a resistive heater located on the membrane portion, the resistive heater being controllable by a current applied to the resistive heater;
- and
- an etalon optical filter located on the resistive heater and over the cavity, an optical passband of the etalon optical filter being wavelength tunable by the resistive heater.
A method of manufacturing an optical apparatus, comprising:
- forming a thermally tuned optical filter, including:
- providing a semiconductor substrate;
- depositing a dielectric layer on the semiconductor substrate;
- forming a cavity in a surface of the semiconductor substrate wherein a membrane portion of the dielectric layer is located over the cavity in the surface of the semiconductor substrate;
- forming a resistive heater layer on the membrane portion and forming an electrode layer connected to the resistive layer such that a temperature of the resistive layer is controllable by a current applied from the electrode layer to the resistive layer;
- and
- positioning an etalon optical filter on the resistive layer and over the cavity, wherein an optical passband through the etalon optical filter is tunable by changing a refractive index of the etalon optical filter from the temperature change of the resistive layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.