Large Scale Steerable Coherent Optical Switched Arrays

An optical structure comprising:

• a light source;
• a plurality of optical emitters;
• an optical power distribution network optically connecting the light source to the plurality of optical emitters, said optical power distribution network including a plurality of switches;
• and
• an array of optical receivers on a common substrate with the plurality of optical emitters and the optical power distribution network;
• wherein said switches are configured such that optical power emitted from the light source that enters the optical power distribution network will be emitted from a subset of the plurality of optical emitters;
• wherein a portion of the emitted optical power is subsequently reflected by an object;
• and
• wherein the reflected optical power is conveyed to the array of optical receivers configured to perform coherent detection based on the received reflected optical power.