Conventional beam steerers are based on mechanical movements. They are bulky and not reliable for long-term use. Integrated photonics enables solid-state beam steerers with compact sizes and no moving parts. These beam steerers can be mass-produced in foundries at a low cost and are considered the enabling technology for next-generation light detection and ranging (LiDAR). In our group, we work on various beam-steering technologies, including optical phased array (OPA), focal plane array (FPA), and dispersive gratings. We apply these technologies to LiDARs and free-space optical communications (FSO). We also use these technologies to realize chip-scale laser scanning microscopes, in which we can actively form a scannable focused spot. Our technology enables shrinking a bulky optical system such as a LiDAR or a microscope to a small chip of only a fingertip size.
Relevant Publications
- Sheng-I Kuo, Ju-Wei Wang, Zohauddin Ahmad, Po-Han Fu, Hsin-Hung Lin, Jin-Wei Shi, Ding-Wei Huang, and You-Chia Chang, “Reconfigurable scan lens based on an actively controlled optical phased array,” Opt. Lett. 47, 3676-3679 (2022). *Highlighted as an Editor’s Pick
- C. W. Chow*, Y. C. Chang*, S. I. Kuo, P. C. Kuo, J. W. Wang, Y. H. Jian, Z. Ahmad, P. H. Fu, J. W. Shi, D. W. Huang, T. Y. Hung, Y. Z. Lin, C. H. Yeh, and Y. Liu, “Actively Controllable Beam Steering Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) Using Integrated Optical Phased Array (OPA),” Journal of Lightwave Technology 41, 1122-1128 (2023). OFC top-scored paper
- P. Y. Hsieh, and Y. C. Chang, “Silicon Photonic Beam Steerer Based on Metalens Focal Plane Array with Direction Fine-tuning,” Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), SW4O.5 (2024).
- J. W. Wang, H. H. Lin, S. I. Kuo, Z. Ahmad, P. Y. Hsieh, C. Y. Hsu, J. W. Shi, and Y. C. Chang, “Chip-scale Confocal Laser-scanning Microscope Based on Optical Phased Array,” Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Pacific Rim (CLEO-PR), Th1D-2 (2024).