中文摘要：

介绍了一种新型的低成本、小体积的的液晶可变光衰减器的设计与制作．该衰减器采用聚合物分散液晶材料，使其填充在经过耦合的带透明导电电极的两根单模光纤的间隙里，利用聚合物分散液晶在不同电场强度下引起的光的散射效应的变化，来实现对光路能量的可控连续衰减．采用体硅微细加工技术术成功地制作出了这种衰减器，并对器件进行了测试，结果表明：当传输的光波长为1550nm时，该衰减器的插入损耗为0．85dB;衰减的最大范围为O．85dB-14．21dB；驱动电压范围9V-57V．

英文摘要：

A novel variable optical attenuator（VOA） based on polymer-dispersed liquid crystals（PDLC） is presented. The device employs PDI.C into the optical path of two collimated single-mode fibers with the transparent ITO electric thin films as the electrode of the PDLC. Utilized the electro-optic properties of PDLC under the condition of the different electric field intensity to realize the continuous controllable attenuate on the power of the optical path. The VOA was fabricated by silicon micromachining techniques and the performance is evaluated. The measuring results show the insertion loss of the fabricated VOA is below 0. 85dB, maximum attenuation range is about 14 dB at 1550um , and a applied voltage of VOA less than 57 volt.