Beam Steering micromirrors for large optical cross Connects

This paper describes Si-micromachined 2-axis beam-steering micromirrors and their performance in 256 by 256 and 1024 by 1024 port large optical crossconnects. The high-reflectivity, wavelength-independent mirrors are electrostatically actuated, capable of large, continuous, controlled, DC tilt in any direction of moderate actuation voltages and allow setting times of a few milliseconds. Packaged 2D arrays containing independently addressable identical 256 and 1296 mirrors are used to build fully functional, bitrate and wavelength independent, single stage, low insertion loss, single mode fiber optical crossconnect fabrics.