Planar optical head for free space optical communications, coherent LIDAR, and other applications

• Main Authors: Bock, Kevin R, Feller, Gregory S, Ogden, Chad Elliott, Chriqui, Guy, Suni, Paul J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 28.01.2020
• Subjects: DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS, THE OPTICAL OPERATION OF WHICH ISMODIFIED BY CHANGING THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIUM OF THEDEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF THE INTENSITY,COLOUR, PHASE, POLARISATION OR DIRECTION OF LIGHT, e.g.SWITCHING, GATING, MODULATING OR DEMODULATING; FREQUENCY-CHANGING; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; TECHNIQUES OR PROCEDURES FOR THE OPERATION THEREOF

A multi-aperture optical system includes a photonic integrated circuit, a spacer substrate coupled to the photonic integrated circuit, a plurality of optical cells, a beam combiner, and a photodetector coupled to the beam combiner. The photonic integrated circuit, the spacer substrate, the plurality of optical cells, the beam combiner, and the photodetector are integrated as a single monolithically formed optical head. Each optical cell includes a focusing optical element formed on the spacer substrate and configured to focus the light through the substrate and onto a folding element. The folding element is integrated into the photonic integrated circuit to couple light incident on the optical cell into a waveguide. The waveguide is coupled to the phase shifter to transport the light reflected by the folding element through a phase shifter. The phase shifter is coupled to the focusing optical element to shift a phase of an optical signal received by the focusing optical element.