Fiber optic circuit switch and a process for its production

Procedure for the production of a fiber optic circuit switch having at least two light guides arranged within a plane and one movable optical switching device, comprising

• providing a sandwich wafer including a base substrate, an electrically insulating intermediate layer and a coating layer;
• masking the coating layer to selectively expose first partial areas that are to be movable after the manufacturing process, said first partial areas having a small first width, and partial control areas which are affixed to the base substrate, said partial control areas having a second width greater than said first width;
• etching the exposed areas of the masked coating layer in a first etching process down to the intermediate layer while forming nearly vertical etching walls in a dry etching procedure with a deep anisotropic reactive ion etching process;
• and
• applying an etchant in a second etching process that attacks only the intermediate layer for a time sufficient to remove completely the intermediate layer beneath said first partial areas of the first width but not beneath said partial control areas of the second width.