Electrically Tunable Surface Micromachined Fabry-Perot interferometer for Visible Light

Abstract We present a new kind of electrostatically tunable surface micromachined Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) structure and a process flow which was successfully used to fabricate devices for visible wavelength range. The novel fabrication process is based on using polymeric sacrificial layer. Fabricated devices have five-layer dielectric mirrors made of atomic layer deposited Al 2 O 3 and TiO 2 thin films. An AC voltage control together with integrated series capacitance enable tuning range of the FPI etalon in excess of 60%. The FWHM (Full Width at Half Maximum) of the 4 th order transmission is 5.4 nm with maximum transmission being about 67% at λ = 500 nm.