Design and modeling of optical microsystems. An approach to a user friendly system integration technique

Optical microsystems usually are of a hybrid nature. They consist of optical components, i.e. microoptical and or integrated-optical ones, and additionally they include at least mechanical and packaging components. Therefore, a complete design process has to account for all relevant aspects optical and thermomechanical simulation, packaging strategy, fabrication and test. This complexity requires a general design strategy. The approach presented is based on the coupling of the specification and the design. In a specification-environment the selection of appropriate solutions for given applications is enabled. It includes selection strategies for components, is fabrication, packaging, and test methods. The design-environment is a simulation and modelling framework with software tools covering the whole design and optimisation process, including the data-exchange with the specification environment. Test examples for our design strategy are different realisations of fibre optical switches .