N × N optical phased array with 2N phase shifters

Two-dimensional (2-D) integrated optical phased arrays (OPA) have many applications from optical imaging to LiDAR. Conventionally, 2-D beam-steering in an N × N OPA requires N² phase shifters placed within the phased array aperture, resulting in a high per-element power consumption while limiting the minimum achievable element-to-element spacing. In this paper, we report an OPA architecture, where for 2-D beam-steering in an N × N OPA, only 2N phase shifters outside of the array aperture are used, which significantly reduces the total OPA power consumption and eliminates electrical routing within the aperture. As a proof of concept, an 8 × 8 OPA is implemented that uses 16 phase shifters to perform 2-D beam-steering without tuning the wavelength. Using the aperture size of 77 µm × 77 µm for the implemented OPA transmitter, far-field beam-steering over a range of about 7° is demonstrated.