Integrated optical transceiver with electronically controlled optical beamsteering
US9740079B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 28, 2016 |
| Grant date | Aug 22, 2017 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 28, 2036 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG02F2203/24
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
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.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.