Silicon-rich silicon nitride CMOS platform for integrated optical phased arrays

Silicon nitride (SiNx), an associated CMOS photonics enabling material, provides a promising and complementary photonic platform for the development of low-cost CMOS compatible waveguides and related photonic components. We propose a 16 element - 2D scanning optical phased array circuit based on a Si-rich core, which reconciliates the requirements of power handling and field-of-view for automotive LiDAR. This dispersive optical phased array consists of wavelength-dependent grating coupler antenna arrays and spiral-delay lines that allow achieving a field-of-view of (35°x 17°) and an angular resolution of (0.15°x1.2°).

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