Patent ID: 11894873
Assignee: RAYTHEON COMPANY
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 19:
20. An apparatus comprising:
a photonic integrated circuit comprising an optical phased array; the optical phased array comprising multiple unit cells, each unit cell comprising:
multiple antenna elements configured to transmit or receive optical signals, a first subset of the antenna elements oriented in a first direction, a second subset of the antenna elements oriented in a second direction opposite the first direction;
multiple signal pathways configured to transport the optical signals to or from the antenna elements, at least some of the signal pathways having an “H” configuration;
multiple phase modulators configured to modify phases of the optical signals being transported through the signal pathways; and
a grating associated with each antenna element, the grating positioned above or below at least an emitting/receiving surface and one or more reflectors of the associated antenna element;

wherein, in each unit cell, the antenna elements comprise pairs of antenna elements, the antenna elements of each pair optically coupled to a common one of the signal pathways; and
wherein, in each unit cell, path lengths to or from the antenna elements defined by the signal pathways are substantially equal to one another.