Lens-Assisted Beam Steering Apparatus

Abstract

An optical beam steering apparatus includes an array of optical elements. Each optical element includes a lens, a switchable array of optical emitters configured to emit light into the lens, and a phase-shifting element configured to control a phase of the light emitted by the optical emitters. A controller is configured to control the array of optical elements to emit a beam of light in a predetermined direction. The controlling includes coarsely adjusting a direction of the beam of light, including, for at least some optical elements of the array of optical elements, configuring the optical element's switchable array of optical emitters to emit light into the optical element's lens according to the predetermined direction. The controlling also includes finely adjusting the direction of the beam of light, including configuring the phase-shifting elements of the optical elements to control a phase relationship between the light emitted by the optical elements according to the predetermined direction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.