California Institute of Technology

Aroutin Khachaturian

Seyed Ali Hajimiri

Seyed Mohammadreza Fatemi

Behrooz Abiri

Parham Porsandeh Khial

Alexander D White

Craig E Ives

Artsroun Darbinian

A coherent imaging system including a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter includes a coherent source and a power splitter for splitting the electromagnetic radiation into a reference and a signal beam. The receiver includes an image forming device and an array of pixels. Each of the pixels include means for collecting at least a portion of the signal beam imaged on the pixel by an image forming device, as a collected signal; means for splitting the collected signal into a plurality of collected signals each having different phase shifts; means for mixing each of the collected signals with the reference beam so as to form a plurality of mixed signals; and means for detecting the mixed signals and outputting a plurality of output electrical signals in response to the mixed signals.

Coherent photonics imager with optical carrier suppression and phase detection capability

A lens-less imaging device, includes, in part, a multitude of pixels each having a light detector and an associated optical element adapted to cause the pixel to be responsive to a different direction of light received from a target. Each pixel has a field of view that overlaps with a field of view of at least a subset of the remaining pixels. The optical element may be a transparent dielectric element, a transparent MEMS component, a transparent microlens, or include one or more metallic walls. The optical element may be a continuous mapping layer formed over the pixels. Each pixel may or may not have a Gaussian distribution response. The lens-less imaging device forms an image of a target in accordance with an optical transfer functions of the pixels as well as responses of the pixels to the light received from the target.

Ultra-thin planar lens-less camera

A method of fabricating a photonic device includes in part, forming a multitude of metal and dielectric layers over a semiconductor substrate to form a structure. The metal layers form a continuous metal trace that characterize an etch channel. At least one of the metal layers extends towards an exterior surface of the structure such that when the structure is exposed to a metal etch, the metal etch removes the metal from the exterior surface of the structure and flows through the etch channel to fully etch the metal layers. The metal etch leaves behind a dielectric structure characterizing a photonic device. The photonic device may be a suspended rib waveguide, a suspended channel waveguide, a grating coupler, an interlayer coupler, a photodetector, a phase modulator, an edge coupler, and the like. A photonics system may include one or more of such devices.

Integrated electronic-photonic devices, systems and methods of making thereof

A wireless laser power transfer system includes, in part, a transmitter and a receiver that form a wireless link. The transmitter, includes, in part, a first communication system, at least a first source of laser beam, and a controller adapted to vary power and direction of the laser beam and further to modulate the laser beam. The receiver includes, in part, a communication system adapted to establish a wireless link with the first communication system, at least a first photo-voltaic cell, and a controller adapted to demodulate and detect the power of the modulated laser beam received by the first photo-voltaic cell from the first source of laser beam. The system optionally includes at least a second source of laser beam controlled by the transmitter controller. The system optionally further includes a second photo-voltaic cell. The transmitter controller is further adapted to cause the second laser beam to strike the second photo-voltaic cell.

Laser wireless power transfer system with active and passive safety measures

An optical phased array, includes, in part, K beam processors each adapted to receive a different one of K optical signals and generate N optical signals in response. The difference between the phases of optical signals aand ais the same for all Ms, where M is an integer ranging from 1 to N&#x2212;1 defining the signals generated by a beam processor, and L is an integer ranging from 1 to K defining the beam processor generating the K optical signals. The transmitter further includes, in part, a combiner adapted to receive the N&#xd7;K optical signals from the K beam processors and combine the K optical signals from different ones of the K beam processors to generate N optical signals. The transmitter further includes, in part, N radiating elements each adapted to transmit one of the N optical signals.

Multi-beam optical phased array

A phased array includes, in part, M&#xd7;N photonic chips each of which includes, in part, an array of transmitters and an array of receivers. At least one of M and/or N is an integer greater than one. The transmitter arrays in each pair of adjacent photonics chips are spaced apart by a first distance and the receiver arrays in each pair of adjacent photonics chips are spaced apart by a second distance. The first and second distances are co-prime numbers. Optionally, at least a second subset of the M&#xd7;N photonic chips is formed by rotating a first subset of the M&#xd7;N photonic chips.

Modular optical phased array

An electro-optical includes, in part, a multitude of phase modulators each of which includes, in part, a p-type semiconductor region, an n-type semiconductor region, and a &#x3c7;insulating dielectric material disposed between the p-type and n-type semiconductor regions. The electro-optical device may be a phased array in which each phase modulator is associated with a different one of the transmitting elements of the phased array. The &#x3c7;insulating dielectric material may be an organic polymer. The electro-optical device may further include, in part, a multitude of sensors each associated with a different one of the phase modulators. Each sensor is adapted to receive a phase modulated signal generated by the sensor's associated phase modulator. The electro-optical device may further include, in part, a multitude of amplitude modulators each associated with a different one of the multitude of phase modulators.

Capacitive modulators for high-efficiency electro-optical systems

A co-prime transceiver attains higher fill factor, improved side-lobe rejection, and higher lateral resolution per given number of pixels. The co-prime transceiver includes in part, a transmitter array having a multitude of transmitting elements and a receiver array having a multitude of receiving elements. The distance between each pair of adjacent transmitting elements is a first integer multiple of the whole or fraction of the wavelength of the optical. The distance between each pair of adjacent receiving elements is a second integer multiple of the whole or fraction of the wavelength of the optical signal. The first and second integers are co-prime numbers with respect to one another. The transceiver is fully realizable in a standard planar photonics platform in which the spacing between the elements provides sufficient room for optical routing to inner elements.

Co-prime optical transceiver array

An optical phased array includes a first multitude of optical transmitting/receiving elements (elements) positioned along a periphery of a first circular path. The phased array may further include a second multitude of optical elements positioned along a periphery of a second circular path concentric with the first circular path, and a third multitude of optical elements positioned along a periphery of a third circular path concentric with the first and second circular paths. The second circular path has a radius that is longer than the radius of the first circular path but shorter than the radius of the third circular. The number of the second multitude of optical elements is greater than the number of the first multitude of optical elements by N elements, and the number of the third multitude of optical elements is greater than the number of the second multitude of optical elements by M elements.

Photonics adaptive beam forming with a polar lattice comprising optical phased array receiving elements to receive the steered optical beam from optical phased array transmitting elements positioned in a circular path

An optical phased array (OPA) includes, in part, a multitude of phase control elements disposed along N rows and M columns forming an N&#xd7;M array. The phase control elements disposed along irow are coupled to irow signal line and phase control elements disposed along jcolumn are coupled to jcolumn signal line. The OPA further includes, in part, a row select block having N switches each configured to couple one of the N rows of the phase control elements to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) in response to a row select signal. The OPA further includes, in part, a column select block having M switches each configured to couple one of the M rows of the phase control elements to a ground terminal in response to a column select signal.

Passive matrix addressing of optical phased arrays

An optical phased array includes, in part, a multitude of receiving elements arranged along N rows and M columns, and a controller configured to activate a first subset of the receiving elements during a first time interval to capture first data representative of a first image of a target, to activate a second subset of the receiving elements during a second time interval to capture second data representative of a second image of the target, and to combine the first and second data to generate the image of the target. The first and second subsets may share common receiving elements. The controller may be further configured to compute an average of the first and second data to generate the image of the target. The first subset may represent a subset of the M columns.

Coherence artifacts suppression in integrated photonic systems

An image capture device includes, in part, N optical transmit antennas forming a first array, N phase modulators each associated with and adapted to control a phase of a different one of the transmit antennas, M optical receive antennas forming a second array, M phase modulators each associated with and adapted to control a phase of a different one of the receive antennas, and a controller adapted to control phases of the first and second plurality of phase modulators to capture an image of an object. The first and second arrays may be one-dimensional arrays positioned substantially orthogonal to one another. Optionally, the first array is a circular array of transmitters, and the second array is a one-dimensional array of receivers positioned in the same plane as that in which the circular array of the transmitters is disposed.

Hybrid transmitter receiver optical imaging system

A sparse optical phased array transmitter/receiver includes, in part, a multitude of transmitting/receiving elements that are sparsely positioned. Accordingly, the transmitting/receiving elements are not uniformly distributed at equal distance intervals along a one-dimensional, two-dimensional, or a three-dimensional array. The positions of the transmitting/receiving elements may or may not conform to an ordered pattern.

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Glendale, CA, United States of America

Aroutin Khachaturian