The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 08, 2012
Filed:
Aug. 11, 2008
Yves-alain Peter, Terrebonne, CA;
Jonathan Masson, Lausanne, CH;
Raphaël St-gelais, Montreal, CA;
Corporation de l'Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, Montreal, CA;
Abstract
A method for fabricating a tunable Fabry-Perot cavity comprises etching a substrate to form two reflectors separated by an air gap and an electrostatic mechanism. One of the two reflectors is mobile and connected to the electrostatic mechanism. Therefore, operation of the electrostatic mechanism moves the mobile reflector to change the thickness of the air gap and thereby tune the Fabry-Perot cavity. A tunable Fabry-Perot cavity fabricated with the above method comprises: a substrate; two reflectors formed in the substrate and separated by an air gap having a thickness, wherein one of the two reflectors is mobile; and an electrostatic mechanism formed in the substrate and connected to the mobile reflector. The mobile reflector connected to the electrostatic mechanism is moved upon operation of the electrostatic mechanism to change the thickness of the air gap and thereby tune the Fabry-Perot cavity. Applications of the Fabry-Perot cavity may comprise a tunable doped fiber laser, a tunable dispersion compensator and an integrated microfluidic refractometer.