Integrated optical transceiver with electronically controlled optical beamsteering
| Patent Number: | 9,740,079 |
| Issued: | 8/22/2017 |
| Official Filing: | View the Complete Patent |
| Abstract: | A beam-steering optical transceiver is provided. The transceiver includes one or more modules, each comprising an antenna chip and a control chip bonded to the antenna chip. Each antenna chip has a feeder waveguide, a plurality of row waveguides that tap off from the feeder waveguide, and a plurality of metallic nanoantenna elements arranged in a two-dimensional array of rows and columns such that each row overlies one of the row waveguides. Each antenna chip also includes a plurality of independently addressable thermo-optical phase shifters, each configured to produce a thermo-optical phase shift in a respective row. Each antenna chip also has, for each row, a row-wise heating circuit configured to produce a respective thermo-optic phase shift at each nanoantenna element along its row. The control chip includes controllable current sources for the independently addressable thermo-optical phase shifters and the row-wise heating circuits. |
| Filed: | 10/28/2016 |
| Application Number: | 15/337,179 |
| Related Opportunity: |
Nanoantenna Phased Array and Transceiver Next-Generation Automotive |
| Government Interests: | STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTEREST This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-NA0003525 awarded by the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. The Government has certain rights in the invention. |