Compact and highly-efficient broadband surface grating antenna on a silicon platform

Khajavi, Shahrzad; Melati, Daniele; Cheben, Pavel; Schmid, Jens H.; Liu, Qiankun; Xu, D.‐X.; Ye, Winnie N.

doi:10.1364/oe.416986

Cited by 33 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Considering these trade-offs, we set the output directions of the grating antennas to be from −10° to −20° from the vertical direction, corresponding to grating periods in the range 550-580 nm. This is by no means a fundamental limit for grating antenna design, and a higher emission efficiency can be achieved with an optimized design of grating geometry 38,39 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A large-scale microelectromechanical-systems-based silicon photonics LiDAR

Zhang

Kwon

Henriksson

et al. 2022

Nature

196

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Three-dimensional (3D) imaging sensors allow machines to perceive, map and interact with the surrounding world1. The size of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) devices is often limited by mechanical scanners. Focal plane array-based 3D sensors are promising candidates for solid-state LiDARs because they allow electronic scanning without mechanical moving parts. However, their resolutions have been limited to 512 pixels or smaller2. In this paper, we report on a 16,384-pixel LiDAR with a wide field of view (FoV, 70° × 70°), a fine addressing resolution (0.6° × 0.6°), a narrow beam divergence (0.050° × 0.049°) and a random-access beam addressing with sub-MHz operation speed. The 128 × 128-element focal plane switch array (FPSA) of grating antennas and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-actuated optical switches are monolithically integrated on a 10 × 11-mm2 silicon photonic chip, where a 128 × 96 subarray is wire bonded and tested in experiments. 3D imaging with a distance resolution of 1.7 cm is achieved with frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) ranging in monostatic configuration. The FPSA can be mass-produced in complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) foundries, which will allow ubiquitous 3D sensors for use in autonomous cars, drones, robots and smartphones.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A large-scale microelectromechanical-systems-based silicon photonics LiDAR

Zhang

Kwon

Henriksson

et al. 2022

Nature

196

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“…This high-directionality nano-antenna [ 36 ] has a metamaterial transition to reduce back-reflections at the waveguide-to-antenna interface and is compatible with silicon photonic foundry manufacturing [ 28 , 37 ]. The designed nano-antenna provides broadband operation, with a less than 1 dB penalty on a radiation power in the wavelength range from 1400 nm to 1600 nm.…”

Section: Circular Optical Phased Arraymentioning

confidence: 99%

Circular Optical Phased Arrays with Radial Nano-Antennas

et al. 2022

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On-chip optical phased arrays (OPAs) are the enabling technology for diverse applications, ranging from optical interconnects to metrology and light detection and ranging (LIDAR). To meet the required performance demands, OPAs need to achieve a narrow beam width and wide-angle steering, along with efficient sidelobe suppression. A typical OPA configuration consists of either one-dimensional (1D) linear or two-dimensional (2D) rectangular arrays. However, the presence of grating sidelobes from these array configurations in the far-field pattern limits the aliasing-free beam steering, when the antenna element spacing is larger than half of a wavelength. In this work, we provide numerical analysis for 2D circular OPAs with radially arranged nano-antennas. The circular array geometry is shown to effectively suppress the grating lobes, expand the range for beam steering and obtain narrower beamwidths, while increasing element spacing to about 10 μm. To allow for high coupling efficiency, we propose the use of a central circular grating coupler to feed the designed circular OPA. Leveraging radially positioned nano-antennas and an efficient central grating coupler, our design can yield an aliasing-free azimuthal field of view (FOV) of 360°, while the elevation angle FOV is limited by the far-field beamwidth of the nano-antenna element and its array arrangement. With a main-to-sidelobe contrast ratio of 10 dB, a 110-element OPA offers an elevation FOV of 5° and an angular beamwidth of 1.14°, while an 870-element array provides an elevation FOV up to 20° with an angular beamwidth of 0.35°. Our analysis suggests that the performance of the circular OPAs can be further improved by integrating more elements, achieving larger aliasing-free FOV and narrower beamwidths. Our proposed design paves a new way for the development of on-chip OPAs with large 2D beam steering and high resolutions in communications and LIDAR systems.

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“…Using a commercial finite difference time domain (FDTD) tool, by adapting our recent published grating coupler [11,12], we have designed a nano antenna on a silicon-on-insulator waveguide with a 2 µm thick upper and buried SiO2 cladding. It consists of 5 periods, each period contains 4 segments with lengths (L1 = 280 nm, L2 = 130 nm, L3 = 196, L4 = 134 nm).…”

Section: Beam Formation and Steeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated circular optical phased array

et al. 2021

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Existing OPAs are typically based on 2D rectangular arrays or 1D linear arrays. Both approaches present a limited field-of-view (FOV) due to the presence of the grating lobes when the element spacing is larger than λ/2. To address the need for an increased steering range, we propose a new design strategy of an OPA system utilizing a 2D circular phased array, with a substantially increased FOV. We present a circular OPA using a demonstrated antenna element design, with an 820-element array. A steering range ΩSR calculated as a solid angle of 0.51π sr, and an angular beamwidth of 0.22°, was achieved. The array exhibits a sidelobe suppression larger than 10 dB, and a FOV of 2π sr. Although the performance is limited by the far field pattern of the individual antenna we chose, our circular OPA achieved, to the best of our knowledge, the largest steering range reported to date compared to the state-of-the-art integrated optical phased arrays reported in literature.

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Compact and highly-efficient broadband surface grating antenna on a silicon platform

Cited by 33 publications

References 48 publications

A large-scale microelectromechanical-systems-based silicon photonics LiDAR

A large-scale microelectromechanical-systems-based silicon photonics LiDAR

Circular Optical Phased Arrays with Radial Nano-Antennas

Integrated circular optical phased array

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