One-dimensional optical phased array based on apodization modulationTechnical Field
The invention relates to the field of laser radars, in particular to a one-dimensional optical phased array based on apodization modulation.
Background
In the information age of everything interconnection, intelligent unmanned systems such as unmanned systems are gradually commercialized. The high-performance sensor is one of the core links of the intelligent unmanned system, so that the laser radar is widely concerned by researchers as an advanced sensor at present.
The phased array is a very classical concept in the field of radar, and forms a fixed phase difference by controlling the initial phase of each array element, so that transmitted beams only meet the interference condition in the specified direction and interfere with each other, and the rotation, the offset and the scanning of the beams can be realized by adjusting the phase difference of adjacent array elements. At present, phased array radars of an electrical radio frequency wave band and a millimeter wave band are very mature, and an optical phased array needs higher phase control precision due to the fact that the unit size of a corresponding device needs to be in the same order of magnitude as the wavelength of light waves, so that higher requirements are provided for the existing manufacturing process.
As shown in fig. 1, a silicon-based optical phased array is generally composed of acoupler 1, abeam splitter 2, aphase shifter 3, and an optical antenna 4 (On-chip silicon optical phase array for two-dimensional beam steering). A light source is coupled to a silicon-based optical phased array from an optical fiber through acoupler 1, then one path of beam splitting to N paths of beam splitting is achieved through abeam splitter 2 and enters aphase shifter 3 array, voltage is applied to thephase shifter 3 array through a scanning electric control system to change the refractive index of a waveguide, extra additional phases are added to the light beam, finally, light with different phases is radiated to a free space through anoptical antenna 4 array, coherent superposition is carried out in a far field, deflection of the light beam is achieved, and the purpose of scanning is achieved. The existing optical phased array only regulates and controls the phase of an optical antenna to generate a far-field beam, the amplitude is not limited, and a uniform beam splitting scheme is adopted in the direction of each antenna array element, so that the light emission amplitude is kept uniform; and along the antenna direction, the etching structure design of grating antenna is for evenly arranging, and holistic disturbance intensity is the same, and the emission cross section is the exponential form, and the effective length of antenna is shorter. The emission amplitude of the optical field can influence the side lobe distribution of a far field, the existence of the side lobe also disperses the energy of the main lobe, and the main lobe is interfered in the scanning process, so that the performance of the phased array is influenced. Thus, the existing solutions do not allow complete control of the light field by considering only phase control, but also require the combination of amplitude control to optimize the far field distribution characteristics of the emitted beam.
Disclosure of Invention
In order to solve the problems in the prior art, the invention provides a one-dimensional optical phased array based on apodization modulation, which combines phase control and amplitude control to optimize the far-field distribution characteristic of an emitted light beam and solve the problem that side lobes disperse main lobe energy.
The technical scheme adopted by the invention for solving the technical problem is as follows:
an apodization modulation based one dimensional optical phased array comprising: the light source is coupled to the silicon-based optical phased array from an optical fiber through the coupler and enters the phase shifter array through the beam splitter, extra additional phases are added to the light beam in the phase shifter array, and finally, the light with different phases is radiated to a free space through the optical antenna array and is subjected to coherent superposition in a far field to realize deflection of the light beam; the beam splitter adopts a mode of connecting a multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler and is used for transmitting the optical power to a phase shifter array at the next stage according to a specific distribution ratio; the phase shifter adds additional phase to the light by changing the effective index of the waveguide; the optical antenna is of a strip waveguide grating structure, light is coupled into a free space, the waveguide is etched on the side wall, the etching structure is distributed in a non-uniform mode, and the near-field emission intensity of the antenna is modulated to obtain a required near-field light intensity profile.
Preferably, the phase shifter is a thermo-optic phase shifter or an electro-optic phase shifter.
Preferably, the middle part of the optical antenna is a straight waveguide, two sides of the straight waveguide are symmetrically arranged in a rectangular structure, the thicknesses of the two parts are the same, the standard 220nm process is adopted, and the width of the straight waveguide is the width of a single-mode waveguide required by the process.
Preferably, the pitch of the rectangular structure of the optical antenna is in a non-uniform arrangement.
Preferably, the beam splitter is in the form of a multi-mode interference coupler and a directional coupler which are combined.
Preferably, the coupling efficiency of the directional coupler varies with the size of the coupling gap and the length of the coupling region.
Preferably, the coupler, the beam splitter, the phase shifter and the optical antenna are made of silicon or silicon nitride.
Preferably, the wavelength band of the light source is 1.3-1.6 μm or 800-1100 nm.
The invention has the beneficial effects that: the invention combines phase control and amplitude control to optimize the far field distribution characteristic of the emitted light beam and solve the problem that the side lobe disperses the energy of the main lobe. The amplitude control of the present invention is embodied in two aspects: in the beam splitter array, selecting a proper light field distribution ratio, and realizing amplitude distribution regulation of a light field through connection of a multi-stage multi-mode interference coupler; in the optical antenna unit, the distribution of the disturbance intensity of the antenna along the direction is changed by setting the parameters of the etching structure of the strip waveguide grating antenna, so that the effective length of the antenna is increased and a required near-field light intensity profile is generated. By combining the two modes, apodization modulation of the optical phased array is realized, the emission amplitude of the optical field is controlled, and side lobes of a far field are limited.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art one-dimensional silicon-based optical phased array.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a first stage beam splitter of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an apodized grating antenna according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a beam splitter of the present invention.
Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of the directional coupler of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a prior art uniform amplitude array and its far field diffraction pattern.
FIG. 7 is a diagram of a cosine distributed amplitude array and its far field diffraction pattern according to the present invention.
In the figure: 1. the coupler comprises a coupler, 2, a beam splitter, 2-1, a multi-mode interference coupler, 2-1-1, an input port, 2-1-2, 1 XN multi-mode interference coupler, 2-1-3, NxM multi-mode interference coupler, 2-1-4, an output port, 2-2, a multi-mode interference coupler and directional coupler simultaneous form, 2-3, a directional coupler simultaneous form, 2-3-1, a coupling space, 2-3-2, a coupling area, 3, a phase shifter, 4, an optical antenna, 4-1, an apodized grating antenna, 4-1-1, a straight waveguide, 4-1-2 and a rectangular structure.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples.
The architecture of the present invention includes acoupler 1, a beam splitter, a phase shifter, an optical antenna array, and a connecting waveguide between the units. Thecoupler 1 employs a grating coupler, edge coupler or other means for coupling external laser light into an optical phased array. The optical beam splitter is connected by a multi-stage MMI coupler (multi-mode interference coupler 2-1) and is used for transmitting light to a phase shifter array at the next stage according to a specific distribution ratio. Based on the thermo-optic effect and the plasma dispersion effect of the silicon material, thephase shifter 3 adopts a thermo-optic phase shifter or an electro-optic phase shifter, and adds an additional phase to the light by changing the effective refractive index of the waveguide. The apodization grating antenna 4-1 is a strip waveguide grating structure, couples light into a free space, etches the side wall of the waveguide, adopts a non-uniform mode to arrange the etching structure, modulates the near field emission intensity of the antenna to obtain the required near field light intensity profile. Apodization modulation combined with the beam splitter and the apodization grating antenna 4-1 realizes control of near-field emission amplitude and limits side lobes of a far field.
The multimode interference coupler 2-1 is a novel coupler, the basic principle is based on the self-mapping effect of an optical field in multimode waveguide, and the multimode interference coupler has the advantages of wide bandwidth, insensitivity to polarization, large device manufacturing tolerance and the like. As shown in FIG. 2, the multimode interference coupler 2-1 is composed of an input port 2-1-1, an output port 2-1-4, a single mode waveguide and a rectangular multimode waveguide MMI region. When light enters the MMI area from one end, each high-order guided mode is excited to generate interference in the MMI area, and under a certain phase condition, an image of an input light field can be generated at some positions of the MMI area. The existing optical phased array adopts a multi-stage 1 multiplied by 23dB multi-mode interference coupler 2-1 to realize the equal division of power. In the invention, different multi-stage multi-mode interference couplers 2-1 are adopted to realize specific optical power distribution. For example, the desired M-port output for a stage can be achieved by using 1 XN multimode interference couplers 2-1-2 and NxM multimode interference couplers 2-1-3 in tandem. Thefirst stage 1 xN multi-mode interference coupler 2-1-2 performs first power distribution on light at an input port 2-1-1, the light enters the next stage N xM multi-mode interference coupler 2-1-3, self-imaging effects of two stages of multi-mode waveguide areas are combined to realize power distribution required by the stage, and the beam splitters output by the M ends are combined in a multi-stage manner to realize specific light power distribution of the phased array antenna array, such as Gaussian distribution, cosine distribution and other distribution schemes which are beneficial to compression of side lobes, and apodization modulation of the antenna array is completed.
The beam splitter of the present invention may be implemented using other beam splitting devices that achieve non-uniform power distribution. As shown in fig. 4, in the form 2-2 in which the multimode interference coupler and the directional coupler are combined, the multimode interference coupler 2-1 performs the first stage of power division, and the directional coupler 2-3 performs the second stage of power division. The directional coupler 2-3 can realize finer power distribution by designing the size of the coupling gap 2-3-1 and the length of the coupling region 2-3-2, and couple light with different energies into the next array.
The apodization grating antenna 4-1 adopts a strip waveguide grating structure with etched side walls, as shown in fig. 3, the middle part is a straight waveguide 4-1-1, the two sides are symmetrically arranged rectangular structures 4-1-2, the thicknesses of the two parts are the same, the standard 220nm process is adopted, and the width of the straight waveguide 4-1-1 is the width of a single-mode waveguide required by the process. The arrangement and the size of the two side rectangular structures 4-1-2 indicate the disturbance intensity of the antenna, and the radiation efficiency of light from the antenna to the outside is determined. Therefore, under the condition of determining that the antenna propagation constant is constant, the arrangement period and the rectangle size of the squares on the two sides are changed, so that the light radiation efficiency can be changed. According to the transmitting light field profile required by the near field, the size and the period of the rectangles on the two sides are subjected to parameter setting, and apodization modulation of a single antenna can be realized.
The combination of the antenna array and apodization modulation of a single antenna realizes near-field light intensity modulation of the whole optical phased array transmitting aperture, and limits the side lobe distribution of a far field. The arrangement of the antenna array can be in a non-uniform arrangement mode, the coherent condition of the grating lobe is destroyed by optimizing the antenna spacing, the grating lobe is compressed to realize a larger scanning range, and the purpose of simultaneously optimizing the grating lobe and the side lobe can be achieved by combining the technical means of the non-uniform arrangement of the antenna array with the apodization modulation provided by the invention.
The silicon-based materials of thecoupler 1, the beam splitter, the phase shifter and the optical antenna are not limited to silicon or silicon nitride materials, and the wavelength bands of the used laser can be 1.3-1.6 mu m (silicon) and 800-;
the silicon-based optical phased array designed by the invention can be applied to the application fields of laser radar, obstacle avoidance, 3D printing, image display, free space optical communication and the like.
As shown in fig. 6, the left side is a schematic diagram of the amplitude distribution of the 12-array optical phased array, the distribution is a schematic diagram under the condition of uniform beam splitting, the amplitudes are approximately equal, and the right side is the far-field diffraction pattern of the distribution. As shown in fig. 7, the left side is a schematic diagram of the amplitude distribution of the 12-array optical phased array, the distribution is a schematic diagram of the beam splitting condition under apodization modulation, the amplitude is presented as cosine distribution, and the right side is the far field diffraction pattern thereof. The sidelobes are significantly suppressed compared to fig. 6.