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Unidirectional waveguide grating antennas with uniform emission for optical phased arrays
Optics Letters
|September 29, 2017
Summary
We developed millimeter-scale optical waveguide grating antennas with unidirectional emission, eliminating blind spots in optical phased arrays. This innovation enables high transmission power and receiving efficiency for LIDAR and free-space communication.
Area of Science:
- Photonics and optical engineering
- Integrated optics
- Antenna technology
Background:
- Optical phased arrays (OPAs) traditionally suffer from blind spots due to substrate reflections.
- Existing antenna designs limit transmission power and receiving efficiency in integrated systems.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate millimeter-scale optical waveguide grating antennas with unidirectional emission.
- To eliminate blind spots in integrated optical phased arrays.
- To achieve uniform emission for high effective aperture and receiving efficiency.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a two-layer silicon nitride waveguide structure.
- Implemented apodization of perturbation strength along the antenna.
- Fabricated and measured millimeter-scale grating antennas.
Main Results:
- Achieved over 90% directionality.
- Demonstrated uniform emission with a standard deviation of 8.65% of the mean for a 3 mm antenna.
- Enabled high effective aperture and receiving efficiency.
Conclusions:
- The developed antennas overcome fundamental limitations in OPAs.
- These state-of-the-art antennas pave the way for blind-spot-free, high-performance integrated optical phased arrays.
- Applications include LIDAR and free-space optical communication systems.
