Optical phased arrays for optical communications and light detection and ranging systems

A method of detecting a plurality of objects in an environment of a first autonomous vehicle, the method comprising:

• placing a plurality of switches of an optical phased array (OPA) architecture of the first autonomous vehicle into a first position wherein the first position allows for joint functionality of a plurality of segments, wherein a plurality of phase shifters are arranged in the plurality of segments;
• transmitting, via a full array transmitter of the OPA architecture of the first autonomous vehicle, a first LIDAR signal, the first LIDAR signal spanning a field of view (FOV) of an OPA architecture of the first autonomous vehicle;
• receiving, via a full array receiver of the OPA architecture of the first autonomous vehicle, a first reflected LIDAR signal, the first reflected LIDAR signal being a reflection of the first LIDAR signal containing information regarding objects in the environment of the first autonomous vehicle;
• identifying, by one or more processors of the first autonomous vehicle, a plurality of areas of interest in the environment of the first autonomous vehicle based on the first reflected LIDAR signal;
• placing a plurality of switches of the OPA architecture of the first autonomous vehicle into a second position, wherein the second position allows for independent functionality of the plurality of segments;
• driving, by the one or more processors of the first autonomous vehicle, the plurality of phase shifters of the plurality of segments, such that a FOV of each segment corresponds to one of the plurality of areas of interest;
• transmitting, via a plurality of segment transmitters of the OPA architecture of the first autonomous vehicle, a plurality of LIDAR signals, the plurality of LIDAR signals each spanning the FOV of each corresponding segment;
• receiving, via a plurality of segment receivers of the OPA architecture of the first autonomous vehicle, a reflected plurality of LIDAR signals, the reflected plurality of LIDAR signals being reflections of the plurality of LIDAR signals containing information regarding a plurality of objects in the plurality of areas of interest;
• and
• detecting the plurality of objects in the environment of the first autonomous vehicle based on the reflected plurality of LIDAR signals.

A method of receiving information regarding an environment of a first vehicle, the method comprising:

• detecting an object in an environment of a first autonomous vehicle, wherein the object is a remote autonomous vehicle, the remote autonomous vehicle is at least partially within a FOV of an OPA architecture of the first autonomous vehicle, and wherein the detecting occurs while one or more of a plurality of transceiver switches are in a first position, the first position allowing for a signal to be received by a LIDAR receiver;
• transmitting, via one of a plurality of transmitters of an OPA architecture of the first autonomous vehicle, an optical communications signal to the detected object;
• and
• receiving, via one of a plurality of receivers of the OPA architecture of the first autonomous vehicle, an optical communications signal from the detected object, wherein the optical communications signal from the detected object includes information regarding the environment of the first vehicle.