Patent ID: 11906785
Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC.
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 8:
9. An imaging-based beam steering system comprising:
one or more input light sources;
a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) coupler array comprising:
a coupler array in a coupler plane including a plurality of couplers arranged in two or more rows and two or more columns, wherein each of the plurality of couplers is configured to provide free-space coupling of light between the coupler plane and one or more directions outside of the coupler plane;
a pixel switch network to selectively couple light into or out of a selected subset of the plurality of couplers from any of two opposite directions in the coupler plane, wherein the pixel switch network comprises:
two or more pixel-network waveguides disposed along the two or more columns of the coupler array; and
a plurality of pixel-network switches, wherein each of the plurality of pixel-network switches is configured to selectively couple light between one of the plurality of couplers and one of the two or more pixel-network waveguides;

one or more feed networks, comprising:
two or more feed-line waveguides; and
one or more feed-network switches to selectively couple light between the two or more feed-line waveguides and the plurality of pixel-network waveguides, wherein light is routable between selected couplers of the plurality of couplers and selected feed-line waveguides of the one or more feed networks along selected paths by controlling the pixel-network switches and the feed-network switches along the selected paths, wherein at least two of the two or more feed-line waveguides couple to one or more of the pixel-network waveguides from the opposite directions via the one or more feed networks.