Discretization of Annular-Ring Diffraction Pattern for Large-Scale Photonics Beamforming

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel annular-ring diffraction pattern-based active beamformer for integrated photonics, demonstrating improved beam efficiency, reduced beamwidth and side-lobe levels, and a scalable multi-annular-ring aperture with efficient control.

Contribution

It presents a new discretization method for annular-ring diffraction patterns in large-scale photonic beamforming, enabling efficient beam steering with fewer electrical drivers.

Findings

Implemented a 255-element multi-annular-ring optical phased array (OPA).

Achieved beamforming and steering with 510 phase and amplitude modulators.

Reduced electrical driver count by over 80% using row-column drive methodology.

Abstract

A solid-state active beamformer based on the annular-ring diffraction pattern is proposed for an integrated photonic platform. Such a circularly symmetric annular-ring aperture achieves radiating element limited FOV. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that a multi-annular-ring aperture with a fixed linear density of elements maintains the beam efficiency for larger apertures while reducing the beamwidth and side-lobe-level (SLL). A 255-element multi-annular-ring OPA with active beamforming is implemented in a standard photonics process. 510 phase and amplitude modulators enable beamforming and beam steering using this aperture. A row-column drive methodology reduces the required electrical drivers by more than a factor of 5.