Integrated optic pressure sensor on silicon substrate

Abstract

A novel integrated optic pressure sensor was constructed with the Mach-Zehnder interferometer structure of glass waveguides on a silicon substrate. Pressure is sensed by detecting the deformation of a thin diaphragm fabricated by using the anisotropic etching of a silicon substrate. The basic design concept of the present sensor was provided by analyzing its operation. The measurable pressure range and the sensitivity can be set by the proper selection of the diaphragm structure. A device was built and its operation performances were tested at 633 nm. For the fabricated device, the measured halfwave pressure was 0.8 x 10(5) Pa and the extinction ratio was 10 dB.

Integrated differential pressure sensor in silicon-on-insulator

“…It has been shown that a membrane where the length/width ratio equals 2 will exhibit higher sensitivity [6]. Secondly, in [6] it is shown that using TM polarized light will enhance the sensitivity since the refractive index change in the out of plane direction is greater than it is in plane. Lastly, placing several membranes in series (as demonstrated by [3]) will also increase overall sensitivity of the device.…”

PbO–GeO2 rib waveguides for photonic applications

“…Thus light propagation in the rib region experiences a slightly larger effective index than that on the left and right sides of the rib, preventing the lateral spreading that normally occurs in planar waveguides [17,18,21]. The description of the fabricated rib waveguides dimensions are listed in Table 1.…”

“…These characteristics make them extremely convenient as building blocks for devices such as sensors, lasers, amplifiers, directional couplers and others [17,18]. However, the production of high quality optical waveguides is not straightforward and, in particular, surface roughness constitutes a major concern [19,20].…”

Experimental study of sensitivity dependences on waveguide position and diaphragm thickness in silicon-based guided-wave optical accelerometer

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Our group also has been developing silicon-based guided-wave optical pressure sensors, 7,8 microphones, accelerometers, 9 and flow sensors with diaphragms. These sensors have two unique features: guided-wave optical sensing and the use of micromechanical structures.…”