According to the plasma dispersion effect of silicon (Si), a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based variable optical attenuator (VOA) with p-i-n lateral diode structure is demonstrated in this paper. A wire rib waveguide with sub-micrometer cross section is adopted. The device is only about 2 mm long. The power consumption of the VOA is 76.3 mW (0.67 V, 113.9 mA), and due to the carrier absorption, the polarization dependent loss (PDL) is 0.1 dB at 20 dB attenuation. The raise time of the VOA is 34.5 ns, the fall time is 37 ns, and the response time is 71.5 ns.