Polymer Guided Wave Integrated Optics: An Enabling Technology for Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems

Efficient merging of optical, microelectromechanical (MEM) and microelectronic systems offers significant potential for achieving the crooptoe1ectromechanical (MOEM) system functionality necessary to meet the performance needs of a number of emerging display, sensing, communications, and control applications. Central to realization of this potential will be the development of a set of microoptical components and processes suitable for co-integration with MEMS devices and support microelectronics. The resulting MEMS "optical toolbox" will provide the generic building blocks with which photonic functions can be achieved within MOEM systems. An extensive set of bulk and surface micromachined microoptical components supporting free-space optical beam manipulation for optical display, scan, and sense functions is currently under investigation by a number of research groups. Integrated waveguide components have been less developed within the surface micromachined MEMS environment yet offer substantial opportunities for extending MOEM integrated system capability. This paper explores issues confronting the integration of waveguide technologies within the surface micromachined MEMS environment. Specific focus is placed on initial efforts developing processes for guided wave polymer optics cointegration with the Multi-User MEMS Process Service (MUMPS) surface micromachining process. Efforts studying the cointegration of polyimide waveguides with MEMS for integrated optical metrology and state feedback applications will be highlighted.