Methods and Systems for Optical Beam Steering
First Claim
1. An optical beam steering apparatus comprising:
- a substrate;
a plurality of waveguides formed on the substrate, the plurality of waveguides comprising a first waveguide and a second waveguide;
a planar dielectric lens, formed on the substrate in optical communication with the plurality of waveguides, to collimate light emitted by the first waveguide as a first collimated beam propagating in a first direction in a plane of the substrate and to collimate light emitted by the second waveguide as a second collimated beam propagating in a second direction in the plane of the substrate different than the first direction; and
an output coupler, formed on the substrate in optical communication with the planar dielectric lens, to guide the first collimated beam in the first direction and to guide the second collimated beam in the second direction and to couple at least a portion of the first collimated beam and the second collimated beam out of the plane of the substrate.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An integrated optical beam steering device includes a planar dielectric lens that collimates beams from different inputs in different directions within the lens plane. It also includes an output coupler, such as a grating or photonic crystal, that guides the collimated beams in different directions out of the lens plane. A switch matrix controls which input port is illuminated and hence the in-plane propagation direction of the collimated beam. And a tunable light source changes the wavelength to control the angle at which the collimated beam leaves the plane of the substrate. The device is very efficient, in part because the input port (and thus in-plane propagation direction) can be changed by actuating only log2 N of the N switches in the switch matrix. It can also be much simpler, smaller, and cheaper because it needs fewer control lines than a conventional optical phased array with the same resolution.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. An optical beam steering apparatus comprising:
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a substrate; a plurality of waveguides formed on the substrate, the plurality of waveguides comprising a first waveguide and a second waveguide; a planar dielectric lens, formed on the substrate in optical communication with the plurality of waveguides, to collimate light emitted by the first waveguide as a first collimated beam propagating in a first direction in a plane of the substrate and to collimate light emitted by the second waveguide as a second collimated beam propagating in a second direction in the plane of the substrate different than the first direction; and an output coupler, formed on the substrate in optical communication with the planar dielectric lens, to guide the first collimated beam in the first direction and to guide the second collimated beam in the second direction and to couple at least a portion of the first collimated beam and the second collimated beam out of the plane of the substrate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of optical beam steering with a plurality of waveguides, a planar dielectric lens, and an output coupler formed on a substrate, the method comprising:
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guiding light with a first waveguide in the plurality of waveguides to the planar dielectric lens; collimating the light emitted by the first waveguide with the planar dielectric lens to produce a first collimated beam propagating in a first direction within a plane of the substrate; guiding the first collimated beam in the first direction with the output coupler; and coupling at least a portion of the first collimated beam out of the plane of the substrate with the output coupler. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A lidar comprising:
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a light source to emit a beam of light; a network of optical switches, in optical communication with the tunable light source, to guide the beam of light to a first waveguide in a plurality of waveguides; a planar dielectric lens, in optical communication with the plurality of waveguides and having a shape selected to satisfy the Abbé
sine condition, to collimate the beam of light emitted by the first waveguide as a first collimated beam propagating in a first direction; anda periodic structure, in optical communication with the planar dielectric lens, to diffract at least a portion of the first collimated beam at an angle with respect to the first direction.
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Specification