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

A method comprising:

• receiving optical signals at a photonic integrated circuit comprising an optical phased array, the optical phased array comprising multiple unit cells, each unit cell comprising (i) an antenna element configured to receive the optical signals and (ii) a modulator configured to phase-shift the optical signals received by the antenna element, wherein multiple subgroups of the unit cells in the optical phased array generate multiple combined optical signals based on the received optical signals;
• and
• at least one of:
• (i) modifying amplitudes of the combined optical signals using amplitude adjusters in order to compensate for amplitude modulations across a receive aperture of the optical phased array and (ii) modifying phases of the combined optical signals using phase modulators in order to compensate for phase modulations across the receive aperture of the optical phased array.

An apparatus comprising:

• a photonic integrated circuit comprising an optical phased array, the optical phased array comprising multiple unit cells, each unit cell comprising (i) means for receiving optical signals and (ii) means for shifting a phase of the optical signals, wherein 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;
• and
• at least one of:
• (i) means for modifying amplitudes of the combined optical signals in order to compensate for amplitude modulations across a receive aperture of the optical phased array and (ii) means for modifying phases of the combined optical signals in order to compensate for phase modulations across the receive aperture of the optical phased array.