Analog Photonics LLC

Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods, and structures for aberration correction of optical phased arrays that employ a corrective optical path difference (OPD) in the near-field of an OPA to correct or cancel out aberrations in emitted beams of the OPA including those reaching far-field distances by generating a spatially-varying OPD across the aperture of the OPA that is substantially equal and opposite to an equivalent OPD of the aberration(s).

In one aspect, in general, an apparatus comprises: an optical receiver configured to receive optical waves over a receive aperture that comprises a plurality of sub-apertures coupled to different respective detectors, where each detector is configured to produce a digital signal based at least in part on a received optical wave; and circuitry configured to apply one or more phase shifts to a respective digital signal from each detector of the optical receiver where the one or more phase shifts are applied based at least in part on a first beam pattern that includes a plurality of intensity peaks at different respective angular positions, and determine respective amplitudes of optical waves corresponding to two or more angular positions of the first beam pattern based at least in part on the one or more phase shifts.

An apparatus comprises: a transmitter module comprising: a first optical beam steering module, and timing circuitry configured to control timing of steering of the first optical beam steering module; and a receiver module comprising: a second optical beam steering module, and timing circuitry configured to control timing of steering of the second optical beam steering module; wherein timing of the steering of the first optical beam steering module and second optical beam steering module are controlled to include a delay based at least in part on a predetermined maximum target range.

An apparatus comprises: at least one transmit aperture configured to provide an optical beam having a far-field angular intensity pattern comprising first and second lobes at first and second angular positions; and a plurality of receive apertures configured to receive optical beams, each receive aperture comprising a respective optical phased array (OPA) formed by a plurality of antenna elements, where each antenna element comprises: a waveguide coupled to a phase shifter, and a plurality of grating elements arranged along the waveguide according to an element factor; wherein the element factors associated with at least two different OPAs of respective receive apertures correspond to different respective far-field angular intensity patterns that at least partially overlap; wherein the far-field angular intensity pattern of the at least one transmit aperture at least partially overlaps with the far-field angular intensity patterns of the at least two different OPAs of respective receive apertures.

Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods, and structures for aberration correction of optical phased arrays that employ a corrective optical path difference (OPD) in the near-field of an OPA to correct or cancel out aberrations in emitted beams of the OPA including those reaching far-field distances by generating a spatially-varying OPD across the aperture of the OPA that is substantially equal and opposite to an equivalent OPD of the aberration(s).

Aspects of the present disclosure describe large scale steerable optical switched arrays that may be fabricated on a common substrate including many thousands or more emitters that may be arranged in a curved pattern at the focal plane of a lens thereby allowing the directional control of emitted light and selective reception of reflected light suitable for use in imaging, ranging, and sensing applications including accident avoidance.

Light is provided to optical antennas (OAs) separated by a first set of spacings in a first OPA. Phases of light provided to respective OAs are controlled to form a transmitted beam whose angle is steered so that first and second lobes of a first angular intensity distribution (AID) scan over first and second portions of a region, respectively. Light is received from OAs separated by a second set of spacings in a second OPA into which light is received from directions associated with a second AID. The first lobe of the first AID and a first lobe of the second AID substantially overlap in angle during the scan of the first lobes, and the second lobe of the first AID and a second lobe of the second AID substantially overlap in angle during the scan of the second lobes.

An optical switching element provides light to a selected output port. A first set of optical antenna elements are optically coupled to respective output ports and distributed along a first axis. A second set of optical antenna elements are separated from a different respective optical antenna element in the first set along at least one of the first axis or a second axis perpendicular to the first axis. An optical element has a first surface that: is positioned to relay optical waves from each of the optical antenna elements in the first set to a target region, and to relay optical waves from the target region to each of the optical antenna elements in the second set, intersects a plane perpendicular to the second axis along a curved line, and intersects a plane perpendicular to the first axis along a straight line that is substantially parallel to the second axis.

A first (second) chip comprises a first (second) surface in proximity to a first (second) set of two or more waveguide couplers. The chips are optically coupled to each other by an interface between the surfaces in which: a first waveguide coupler of the first set is in proximity to a second waveguide coupler of the second set within a distance that supports evanescent optical coupling between the first waveguide coupler and the second waveguide coupler that are overlapped within a first coupling region, and a third waveguide coupler of the first set is in proximity to a fourth waveguide coupler of the second set within a distance that supports evanescent optical coupling between the third waveguide coupler and the fourth waveguide coupler that are overlapped within a second coupling region.

Aspects of the present disclosure describe optical phased array structures and devices in which hyperbolic phase envelopes are employed to create focusing and diverging emissions in one and two dimensions. Tuning the phase fronts moves focal point spot in depth and across the array. Grating emitters are also used to emit light upward (out of plane). Adjusting the period of the gratings along the light propagation direction results in focusing the light emitted from the gratings. Changes in the operating wavelengths employed moves the focal spot along the emitters.