Lockheed Martin Corporation

Raytheon Company

Other

Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, Inc.

Richard Lee Kendrick

Alan Lee Duncan

Eric H Smith

Joseph C Marron

Stephen P Palese

Robert D Sigler

Guy Chriqui

Chad Elliott Ogden

David M Stubbs

Daniel S Acton

Donald Francis Specht

Moe Soltani

Samuel Trent Thurman

Katherine Emily Badham

Joseph T Pitman

Vassilis George Zarifis

A digital measuring device implemented on a photonic integrated circuit, the digital measuring device including a laser source implemented on the photonic integrated circuit configured to provide light, a first waveguide structure implemented on the photonic integrated circuit configured to direct a first portion of light from the laser source at a moving object and receive light reflected from the moving object, a second waveguide structure implemented on the photonic integrated circuit configured to combine a second portion of light from the laser source with the light reflected from the moving object to produce a measurement beam, a first multiplexer implemented on the photonic integrated circuit configured to split the measurement beam into a plurality of channels, and a plurality of detectors implemented on the photonic integrated circuit configured to detect an intensity value of each channel to measure a distance between the digital measuring device and the moving object.

Photonic integrated circuit distance measuring interferometer

An apparatus includes a photonic integrated circuit having an optical phased array, where the optical phased array includes multiple unit cells. Each unit cell includes (i) at least one antenna element configured to transmit or receive optical signals and (ii) a modulator configured to phase-shift the optical signals transmitted or received by the antenna element. Each unit cell is configured to transmit or receive light having multiple polarizations in the optical signals.

Photonic integrated circuit with independent unit cells having multi-polarization sensitivity

An apparatus includes a photonic integrated circuit having an optical phased array, where the optical phased array includes multiple unit cells. Each unit cell includes multiple antenna elements configured to transmit or receive optical signals, where a first subset of the antenna elements is oriented in a first direction and a second subset of the antenna elements is oriented in a second direction opposite the first direction. Each unit cell also includes multiple signal pathways configured to transport the optical signals to or from the antenna elements, where at least some of the signal pathways have an 'H' configuration. Each unit cell further includes multiple phase modulators configured to modify phases of the optical signals being transported through the signal pathways.

Photonic integrated circuit with inverted H-tree unit cell design

An apparatus includes a photonic integrated circuit having a first lenslet array and a first antenna element array forming a first pupil of the photonic integrated circuit and a second lenslet array and a second antenna element array forming a second pupil of the photonic integrated circuit, where the second pupil has a different size than the first pupil. The photonic integrated circuit also has a waveguide layer positioned between the first and second pupils, where the waveguide layer includes multiple waveguides configured to guide optical signals between antenna elements of the first antenna element array and antenna elements of the second antenna element array.

Photonic integrated circuit-based imaging systems

A digital measuring device implemented on a photonic integrated circuit, the digital measuring device including a laser source configured to provide light, a first ring resonator configured to produce a first frequency comb of light from the laser source, wherein at least a portion of the first frequency comb of light is directed at a moving object, a local oscillator configured to provide a reference beam, at least one waveguide structure configured to combine the reference beam with light reflected from the moving object to produce a measurement beam, a first multiplexer configured to split the measurement beam into a plurality of channels spaced in frequency, and a plurality of detectors configured to detect an intensity value of each channel of the plurality of channels to measure a distance between the digital measuring device and the moving object.

Heterodyne photonic integrated circuit for absolute metrology

A method includes illuminating a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) of a transmit aperture of a laser communication terminal and a PIC of a receive aperture of the laser communication terminal with multi-wavelength light, where each PIC includes multiple antenna elements forming an optical phased array (OPA). The method also includes determining light intensities of different wavelengths of the multi-wavelength light after the multi-wavelength light has passed through each PIC. The method further includes estimating phases of light associated with the antenna elements based on variations in the light intensities. In addition, the method includes adjusting one or more phase shifters of at least one of the PICs based on the estimated phases of light.

System and method for calibrating PIC-based optical phased array transmitter and receiver

A method includes capturing measurements of optical signals transmitted from an optical phased array that includes (i) multiple array elements each having an antenna element and a phase modulator and (ii) an additional antenna element spaced apart from the array elements. The method also includes performing digital holography using the measurements to identify relative phases of the array elements with respect to a phase of the additional antenna element. In addition, the method includes modifying phases provided by at least some of the phase modulators of at least some of the array elements to bring the array elements more closely into phase with one another.

Photonic integrated circuit-based optical phased array phasing technique

A digital measuring device implemented on a photonic integrated circuit, the digital measuring device including a tunable laser source implemented on the photonic integrated circuit configured to sweep over a frequency range to provide multi-wavelength light, a first waveguide structure implemented on the photonic integrated circuit configured to direct a first portion of light from the laser source at a moving object and receive light reflected from the moving object, a second waveguide structure implemented on the photonic integrated circuit configured to combine a second portion of light from the laser source with the light reflected from the moving object to produce a measurement beam, and a first detector implemented on the photonic integrated circuit configured to detect intensity values of the measurement beam to measure a distance between the digital measuring device and the moving object.

Swept frequency photonic integrated circuit for absolute metrology

An apparatus includes a first light source to produce a first reference light, a first pair of arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs) to demultiplex a first optical signal and the first reference light, respectively, into multiple first signal beams and multiple first reference beams. A first heterodyne optical detector can mix the multiple first signal beams and the multiple first reference beams to generate first quadrature optical signals. A first pair of photo-detectors can convert the first quadrature optical signals to first in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) electrical signals. The apparatus is implemented as a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) incorporating the first pair of AWGs, the first heterodyne optical detector and the first pair of photo-detectors.

Photonic integrated circuit for heterodyne imaging

A dual-lenslet array photonic integrated circuit (PIC) imager includes a PIC and top and bottom substrate spacers. A first optical prism couples a first lenslet array to a first-side edge of the PIC. A second optical prism couples a second lenslet array to a second-side edge of the PIC. Lenslets of the first lenslet array and respective lenslets of the second lenslet array are coupled to respective waveguides embedded in the in the PIC.

Multi-lenslet PIC imagers and packaging configurations

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) imager includes a substrate, and a number of PIC imager units disposed in an arbitrary configuration on the substrate. Each PIC imager unit includes a PIC coupled to an optical connector, and a number of lenslets configured as a linear lenslet array and optically coupled to an edge of the PIC. Pairs of lenslets of the linear lenslet array are optically coupled to respective waveguides embedded in the PIC.

Linear-fan configuration of photonic integrated circuit imagers

An apparatus includes multiple photonic integrated circuit (PIC) optical spectrometers, and an imaging plane coupled to the PIC optical spectrometers. Each PIC optical spectrometer includes multiple semiconductor chip layers. Each semiconductor chip layer includes multiple arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs) and a number of on-chip optical detectors.

Photonic integrated circuit optical spectrometer

An apparatus includes a number of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) imaging detector arrays, and multiple electronic integrated circuits (ICs) coupled to the PIC imaging detector arrays. Each PIC imaging detector array of includes a number of lenslets and a number of waveguides. At least some of the lenslets are coupled to multiple waveguides, and sets of two lenslets are configured to form interferometer channels.

Super-PIC SPIDER

A device for combined-zoom interferometric imaging includes a number of first blades and second blades. Each of the first blades includes multiple first optical elements arranged in a first linear configuration for high-resolution interferometric imaging. Each of the second blades includes multiple second optical elements arranged in a second linear configuration for low-resolution interferometric imaging. Pairs of the first optical elements with different baseline lengths are coupled through a first array of optical waveguides to an optical processor. Pairs of the second optical elements with different baseline lengths are coupled through a second array of optical waveguides to the optical processor.

Growing community of inventors

San Mateo, CA, United States of America

Richard Lee Kendrick