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Reports the microfabricated nickel clamps for packaging of optical fibers in photonics devices. When the fiber is inserted into the silicon V groove, the microfricated clamps fix it in the V groove. Compared with the traditional silicon V grooves, this approach only involves one additional sputtering, photolithography, and electroplating process. Two single-mode optical fibers were fixed into the silicon V groove by the nickel clamp; the measured insertion loss is lower than 0.1 dB.

A novel, electromagnetically driven variable fiber optic attenuator based on micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) technology is described. The attenuation level is adjusted by changing the microshutter position in the optical path. A new technique, termed "nonsilicon surface micromachining," is used to fabricate the shutter, in which a copper layer was used as the sacrificial layer, and the electroplated FeNi as the structure layer. This scheme provides another way to fabricate the optical microstructure. The optical characteristics of the attenuator are theoretically analyzed, and the result is verified by experiments. The MEMS attenuator has fiber-to-fiber insertion loss less than 3 dB at 1550-nm wavelength, dynamic range greater than 40 dB, 0.2-dB repeatability, and return loss better than 40 dB.

A novel micromachined electromagnetic actuated variable optical attenuator is described. The attenuation level is adjusted by changing the lateral distance between two V-groove-aligned single-mode fibers. Based on the waveguide transmission theory, the relationship between the attenuation and the offset is analyzed. The fabrication of the device only enrolls common and well-known semiconductor technologies. The packaged volume of the device is 20×10×5 mm3. According to the experiment results, the insertion loss is less than 1 dB, the polarization dependent loss is less than 0.1 dB, dynamic range is larger than 50 dB, and the driving voltage is less than 5 V. It is proven to be a low-cost, high-performance passive device for future all-optical networks.

A simple, accurate model for the quantitative analysis of the Shupe effect in a Sagnac interferometer has been put forward and confirmed by experimental results. Based on the model, the thermal phase-drift contribution of each layer has been evaluated and a novel approach to reduce the Shupe effect by 60% has been developed.