Research On Micro-fluid Drving Of Microfidic Array Opticl Switch

Optical transmission and switching net can't develop without optical switches which are vital inall-optical network. Several typical electronic-controlled optical switches are described in this paperas well as their advantages and disadvantages. Then microfluidics is introduced and droplets drivingmethods are discussed including microfluids driven by electrostatic actuation, piezoelectricactuation, heat, centrifugal force, surface tension and light pressure.On the basis of optical switch and microfluidics technology, properties of microfluid and modelof fluid flow are described. Then the actuator structure of electrostatic actuating microfluidic opticalswitch array and piezoelectric actuating microfluidic optical switch was proposed. The basic idea ofoptical switch is that squeezing the liquid in the liquid reservoir and the gas in the micro flowchannel with the inverse piezoelectric effect of piezoelectric ceramic can control the flow of liquidso that the purpose of controlling the optical path is achieved.Paper focuses on the microfluidic optical switch drive unit. Conductive glass is using as the basallayer, a thin PDMS film material plating aluminum as a conductive module. The force applied onupper and lower surfaces of actuator structure is studied. The results show that force produced byelectrostatic actuation is small, and high effective voltage is needed. The displacement of the filmdriven by piezoelectric ceramic is analysed. The experimental results confirm the possibility ofdiving the microfliuds in micro-channels that fabricated by soft lithography. The edges ofmicro-channels are not smooth and it's depth of only 18μm is far below the requirements ofwaveguide layer. So the fabrication method need to be optimized.Finally, a novel fabrication method is proposed. The PMMA film is fabricated by direct pressingwith mould. The coupling loss is tested when using self-focusing rod as waveguides. Mould madeby hot pressing method is designed. And design for actuator structure with three piezoelectricceramic working together is presented.