Abstract: 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).

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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).

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: An apparatus comprises: at least one optical source port providing an optical wave having a tunable spectral peak wavelength; one or more transmitting optical phased arrays (OPAs), each: coupled to the optical source port, wherein the OPAs form beams with a wavelength-controlled angular tuning range within a first plane and a phase-shift-controlled angular tuning range within a perpendicular plane; and receiving OPAs, each: coupled to a coherent receiver and configured to receive optical waves characterized by a wavelength-controlled angular tuning range within the first plane and a phase-shift-controlled angular tuning range within the perpendicular plane. At least two beams' wavelength-controlled angular tuning ranges are at least partially non-overlapping, and each of the receiving OPAs' wavelength-controlled angular tuning ranges at least one partially overlaps with at least one of the wavelength-controlled angular tuning ranges of the beams.

Abstract: Steering light includes: providing, from a plurality of optical source ports, a respective optical wave that is tuned over different respective wavelengths, within different respective time slots; emitting at least a portion of the light from at least one optical phased array comprising a plurality of optical phase shifters, and a plurality of optical grating antennas; distributing at least a portion of the light using at least one optical distribution network (ODN) comprising: one or more ODN input ports, and two or more ODN output ports each coupled to a different respective one of the optical phase shifters; and coupling at least a portion of the light using at least one optical coupler (OC) comprising: at least one OC input port coupled to one of the optical source ports, and at least one OC output port coupled to one of the one or more ODN input ports.

Abstract: An electronically steerable optical source comprises a photonic array comprising a plurality of optical antennas arranged along a line, and circuitry configured to control steering of a beam about a first axis substantially perpendicular to the line. A steering range over which the steering of the beam is limited is characterized by first and second vectors at extrema of the steering range. A mounting structure is rotatably attached to a base structure, with the electronically steerable optical source rigidly mounted to the mounting structure. A rotation controller is configured to rotate the mounting structure with respect to the base structure about a second axis by at least 180 degrees, where the electronically steerable optical source is oriented on the mounting structure such that (1) the second axis is not parallel to the line, and (2) the first vector is substantially parallel to the second axis.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: An apparatus comprises a photonic integrated circuit comprising a first optical coupler coupled to an optical source and a second optical coupler coupled to one or more photonic circuit elements integrated in the photonic integrated circuit; and a non-reciprocal optical element optically coupled to the first optical coupler and the second optical coupler. At least one of the first optical coupler or the second optical coupler is configured as a polarization-sensitive optical antenna that has an angular radiation function comprising at least (1) a peak intensity of a transverse magnetic optical field associated with a first angular direction, and (2) a peak intensity of a transverse electric optical field associated with a second angular direction different from the first angular direction.

Abstract: An apparatus includes: an optical phased array (e.g., on a photonic integrated circuit), a focusing element, which can be at a fixed position relative to the optical phased array and configured to receive an optical beam from the optical phased array, and a steering element, which can be at a fixed position relative to the focusing element and configured to transmit the optical beam received from the focusing element. In some implementations, at least one of the focusing element or the steering element is externally coupled to the photonic integrated circuit.

Abstract: A polarization rotator structure includes: a first core structure formed at a first layer, extending from the first end to a second end, and a second core structure formed at a second layer that is at a different depth than the first layer and formed in proximity to the first core structure. The first core structure and the second core structure provide mode hybridization between at least two orthogonally polarized waveguide modes of the PRS. An optical splitter structure is optically coupled at a first end to the second end of the PRS, and optically coupled at a second end to at least two optical waveguides, and includes: a first core structure that is contiguous with at least one of the first or second core structures of the PRS, and a second core structure that is separate from both of the first and second core structures of the PRS.

Abstract: At least one beam of an optical wave is transmitted along a transmission angle toward a target location from a send aperture of a transmitter. The optical wave comprises at least a first portion, and a second portion having a different characteristic from a characteristic of the first portion. Two or more receivers include at least one receiver comprising: a receive aperture arranged in proximity to at least one of the send aperture or a receive aperture of a different receiver, an optical phased array within the receive aperture, the optical phased array being configured to receive at least a portion of a collected optical wave arriving at the receive aperture along a respective collection angle, and a filter configured to filter the received portion of the collected optical wave according to the characteristic of the first portion of the optical wave.

Abstract: 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).

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: Modulation of a frequency of a transmitted optical wave includes: at least a first and second slopes for respective frequency sweeps associated with respective points in at least one of a first or second frame. A computed range and a computed velocity are determined based on combining first partial data derived from at least one measurement associated with a first backscattered portion of the transmitted optical wave with second partial data derived from at least one measurement associated with a second backscattered portion of the transmitted optical wave. The first backscattered portion is received during a frequency sweep at the first slope associated with a first point in the first frame. The second backscattered portion is received during a frequency sweep at the second slope associated with a second point in the first frame different from the first point or associated with at least one point in the second frame.

Abstract: An optical coupler in a photonic chip is configured to couple an optical port to an array of optical phase shifters in the chip. An optical amplifier module is optically coupled to a portion of the chip to receive phase shifted optical waves, and is configured to: provide, after propagation of the phase shifted optical waves through different respective gain regions, amplified optical waves that optically interfere with each other starting at an emission plane to form an optical phased array output beam, and provide an arrangement of the gain regions such that (1) at least two phase shifted optical waves propagating through adjacent gain regions have optical path lengths between the optical port and the emission plane that are substantially equal to each other, and (2) a pitch of the gain regions is substantially equal to a pitch of the amplified optical waves at the emission plane.