Abstract
Optical beam steering can find applications in several domains such as laser
scanning, LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), wireless data transfer and optical
switches and interconnects. As present beam steering approaches use mechanical motion
such as moving mirrors or MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) or molecular movement
using liquid crystals, they are usually limited in speed and/or performance. Therefore
we have studied the possibilities of the integrated silicon photonics platform in beam
steering applications. In this paper, we have investigated a 16 element one-dimensional
optical phased array on silicon-on-insulator with a field-of-view of 23°. Using
thermo-optic phase tuners, we have shown beam steering over the complete field-of-view.
By programming the phase tuners as a lens, we have also shown the focusing capabilities
of this one-dimensional optical phased array. The field-of-view can easily be increased
by decreasing the width of the waveguides. This clearly shows the potential of silicon
photonics in beam steering and scanning applications.
© 2011 IEEE
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