What is MEMS VOA?

MEMS VOA (Variable Optical Attenuator) is an optical device that uses MEMS technology to control the attenuation of optical signals. It mainly has two types: MEMS Shutter VOA and MEMS Mirror VOA.

MEMS Shutter VOA:
This type of VOA controls the MEMS Shutter to block the signal light (usually through heating) to achieve the attenuation function of the optical signal. Due to the need for heating, its power consumption is relatively high.

MEMS Mirror VOA:
This type of VOA controls the rotation of the MEMS Mirror chip to deflect the incident signal light and change the size of the light spot received at the output port, thereby achieving the attenuation function of the optical signal. Compared with MEMS Shutter VOA, MEMS Mirror VOA has extremely low power consumption and smaller size.

The design of MEMS VOA usually adopts a coaxial design solution. The manufacturing process includes TO packaging the MEMS chip, debugging the optical path to obtain the maximum attenuation optical path, and then packaging the debugged optical path and the dual-core collimator into a coaxial circle. inside the tube.

In terms of application, MEMS VOA is mainly used for optical path attenuation, and its application scenarios include backbone networks and metropolitan area networks. They can be used in test systems or integrated into test instruments for power equalization, or cooperated with OADM (Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer), or combined with AWG (Arrayed Waveguide Grating) to form VMUX (Variable Microwave Unidirectional eXuctor). In addition, MEMS VOA can also be integrated into EDFA (Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier) ​​to adjust the output slope and amplifier gain to achieve VGA (Variable Gain) function.

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