Photonic integrated circuit-based optical communication optimized for receive aperture amplitude and phase modulations

Abstract

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) an antenna element configured to receive optical signals and (ii) a modulator configured to phase-shift the optical signals received by the antenna element. Multiple subgroups of the unit cells in the optical phased array are configured to generate multiple combined optical signals based on the received optical signals. The apparatus also includes at least one of: (i) amplitude adjusters configured to modify amplitudes of the combined optical signals in order to compensate for amplitude modulations across a receive aperture of the optical phased array and (ii) phase modulators configured to modify phases of the combined optical signals in order to compensate for phase modulations across the receive aperture of the optical phased array.