Micro-electromechanically tunable vertical cavity photonic device and a method of fabrication thereof
First Claim
1. A tunable Fabry-Perot vertical cavity device comprising top and bottom semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) stacks separated by a tunable air-gap cavity and a supporting structure that carries the top DBR stack, wherein the air-gap cavity is located within a recess formed in a spacer completely covered by the supporting structure, the top DBR stack being centered around a vertical axis passing through the center of said recess and having a lateral dimension smaller than the lateral dimension of the recess, a region of the supporting structure outside the top DBR stack and above the recess presenting a membrane to be deflected by application of a tuning voltage to electrical contacts of the device
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Abstract
A tunable Fabry-Perot vertical cavity photonic device and a method of its fabrication are presented. The device comprises top and bottom semiconductor DBR stacks and a tunable air-gap cavity therebetween. The air-gap cavity is formed within a recess in a spacer above the bottom DBR stack. The top DBR stack is carried by a supporting structure in a region thereof located above a central region of the recess, while a region of the supporting structure above the recess and outside the DBR stack presents a membrane deflectable by the application of a tuning voltage to the device contacts.
51 Citations
14 Claims
- 1. A tunable Fabry-Perot vertical cavity device comprising top and bottom semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) stacks separated by a tunable air-gap cavity and a supporting structure that carries the top DBR stack, wherein the air-gap cavity is located within a recess formed in a spacer completely covered by the supporting structure, the top DBR stack being centered around a vertical axis passing through the center of said recess and having a lateral dimension smaller than the lateral dimension of the recess, a region of the supporting structure outside the top DBR stack and above the recess presenting a membrane to be deflected by application of a tuning voltage to electrical contacts of the device
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8. A method of fabrication of a Fabry-Perot tunable vertical cavity device comprising top and bottom distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) stacks with a tunable air-gap cavity therebetween, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) forming a spacer above the bottom DBR stack;
(b) fabricating an etched-through recess in the spacer, thereby forming a structured surface of the spacer, said recess presenting a location for said tunable air-gap cavity;
(c) bonding a top DBR wafer including a supporting structure to the structured surface of the spacer in such a way that said supporting structure faces said structured surface of the spacer and completely covers said recess, thus forming the air-gap cavity, and selectively etching a substrate on which layers the top DBR were grown;
(d) forming the top DBR stack above a central region of said recess and a membrane above said recess outside said top DBR stack, by etching the layers of the top DBR till reaching the supporting structure so as to define a mesa presenting said top DBR stack having a lateral dimension smaller than the lateral dimension of said recess and being centered about a vertical axis passing through the center of said recess, a region of the supporting structure above said recess and outside said mesa presenting said membrane deflectable by application of a tuning voltage to electrical contacts of the device. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification