Tunable Fabry-Perot interferometer with subwavelength grating reflectors for MWIR microspectrometers

This report presents recent advances in the design and fabrication of a tunable Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) with subwavelength grating (SWG) reflectors, as well as measurement results and applications. The FPI is designed as wavelength selecting element for highly miniaturized mid-wave infrared spectrometers. The optical resonator of the FPI is built between two highly reflecting mirrors. The mirrors are integrated in a supporting MEMS structure with one electrostatically movable and one fixed mirror carrier. The FPI is fabricated in a bulk micromachining batch process on wafer level from two silicon substrates. The substrates are bonded together with an intermediate SU-8 layer. The reflectors are made of aluminum subwavelength gratings, structured on a thin LP-Si3N4 membrane by nanoimprint lithography. The subwavelength structures build a frequency selective surface with high reflectance and low absorbance in a defined spectral range. Simulations and optimization of the design were done using finite element method with a 3D EM frequency domain solver. Comparison of simulation results and measurements of fabricated reflectors and FPIs are in very good agreement. The FPIs are used in the 5th interference order and can be tuned from 3.5 mu m to 2.9 mu m electrically. The measured maximum transmittance is between 70 % and 50 % and the measured FWHM bandwidth is lower than 50 nm. The new subwavelength grating reflectors can be integrated in a MEMS batch process more cost-efficient than previously used reflectors of dielectric layer stacks.