A planar lightwave circuit device includes one or more planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) each having an optical layer deposited on a substrate, and a package base including one or more support structures for suspending the planar lightwave circuit above a portion of the package base. Each substrate has a first coefficient of thermal expansion, whereas the package base has a second coefficient of thermal expansion. The first and second coefficients of thermal expansion differ such that a change in temperature causes the support to apply one of a compressive and a tensile force to the planar lightwave circuit in a plane within or parallel to the plane of the planar lightwave circuit. The induced stress can modify the optical performance of the PLC device, e.g. to reduce the temperature sensitivity of the device and thus maintain device performance, or for providing efficient passive or dynamic tuning of the device.