Patent ID: 11953678
Assignee: ANALOG PHOTONICS LLC
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. An optical phased array (OPA) structure comprising:
an array of antennas that emit light, said array of antennas defining an overall aperture of the OPA, and two or more of the antennas each comprising a waveguide and at least one antenna emitter structure, where at least two of the waveguides receive light from an optical distribution network;
a plurality of individually operable phase shifters positioned outside of the overall aperture, each one of the phase shifters positioned in an optical path at the entrance to a waveguide, said waveguide including a plurality of antenna emitter structures; and
a phase corrector configured to apply at least one of: (1) a spatially-varying optical path difference (OPD) across the overall aperture of the OPA, where the spatially-varying OPD is configured to correct or cancel out any far-field beam aberrations, or (2) a spatially-varying optical phase shift across the overall aperture of the OPA, where the spatially-varying optical phase shift is configured to correct or cancel out any far-field beam aberrations;
wherein the overall aperture of the OPA is arranged as a plurality of sub-apertures, the phase corrector comprises a plurality of index-modifying elements overlying the OPA structure, each one of the index-modifying elements associated with a particular sub-aperture, and each one of the index-modifying elements operable to modify at least one of the OPD or optical phase shift of the sub-aperture with which it is associated; and
wherein at least one antenna emitter structure of the plurality of antenna emitter structures is positioned in a different sub-aperture from another antenna emitter structure of the same waveguide.