Monolithic Photonic-Integrated Beamformer

Abstract

Beam steering or scanning is crucial in the implementation of several technological applications, for instance, LiDAR, optical communications, laser machining and 3D printing. Current technologies enabling the generation of beam steering can be realized by the dynamic optoelectronic beamformer devices rely on active medium such as transparent conducting oxide (TCO) materials, multiple quantum wells (MQW), MEMS, liquid crystals or phase-change materials. Another important aspect to take into account when fabricating these beamformer devices is its compact-form architecture or monolithic, in which turn leads to a compact solution, produced using wafer scale processes, thereby holding the promise of low cost and mass manufacturability. However, in such systems, a downside series become critical issues, for example, laser power insertion loss, limited field of view (FOV), vulnerability to vibrations and shocks, low mechanical durability, bulky size, and so on. In addition of these downsides, the production of sidelobes alongside the main beam reduces the steering efficiency. In order to overcome these problems, several miniaturized beam steering platforms demonstrated in literature, such as chip-scaled optical phased arrays and flat optical devices based on metasurfaces, can realistically be tailored for specific applications to fulfil the requirements of multiwavelength operation, ranging, resolution, polarization, depth precision, FOV, production scalability and low-cost on-chip integration. Thus, the strategy of this Post-Doc project is to design, fabricate and characterize an integrated beamformer based on dielectric optical phased aperiodic array antennas (DOPAAAs). We expect to be able of implementing compact and integrated beam steering prototypes while to meeting optical and form-factor specifications, designs in order to reduce weight, power consumption, parts count, cost, latency, and environmental sensitivity to temperature, humidity, and vibration.