Patent ID: 7428100
Filing Date: 2008-09-23
Classification: G02F

Abstract:
1. A beam steering system, comprising: a first plurality of volume diffraction non-controllable gratings, each one of said gratings being associated with a corresponding one of a first plurality of grating vectors, said first plurality of grating vectors being disposed substantially in a first plane, each one of the gratings being arranged to diffract optical energy incident thereon from any one of a plurality of input directions of resonance to a corresponding one of a plurality of output directions; a second plurality of volume diffraction non-controllable gratings arranged to receive the optical energy from first plurality of volume diffraction non-controllable gratings, each one of said second plurality of volume diffraction gratings being associated with a corresponding one of a second plurality of grating vectors, said second plurality of grating vectors being disposed substantially in a second plane different from the first plane, each one of the second plurality of gratings being arranged to diffract optical energy incident thereon from any one of a plurality of input directions of resonance to a corresponding one of a plurality of output directions; and a beam steering arrangement for deflecting a beam of optical energy incident on the beam steering system such that it is directed first to a selected one of the first plurality of gratings along a selected one of the plurality of input directions of resonance for the selected one of the first plurality of gratings and then directed to the second plurality of gratings in a direction substantially equal to a selected one of the plurality of input directions of resonance for a selected one of the second plurality of gratings; and wherein the beam steering arrangement is disposed in front of the first plurality of volume diffraction non-controllable gratings.