Mechanically tunable photonic crystal

Many technologies have been developed to actively change the band gap of a photonic crystal. While reasonable tuning speeds have been achieved, large simultaneous changes in band gap have not. This is suitable for optical switching and routing, however, a much larger tuning range is required for optical switching of multiple wavelength signals. In this paper, we show the design and analysis of a MEMS device which allows for higher tuning capabilities by leveraging the high strain achievable within a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer attached to silicon comb drives. This novel design can lead to photonic crystals with more tunability than other state-or-the-art designs while maintaining acceptable speeds over 1 kHz.