US Patent 11664894 Photonic integrated circuit-based optical phased array communication system

An apparatus includes an optical phased array having multiple array elements. Each array element includes an antenna element configured to transmit or receive an optical signal. Each array element also includes an electro-optic (EO) modulator associated with the antenna element, where the EO modulator is configured to modulate the optical signal transmitted or received by the antenna element. The antenna elements may be configured to transmit optical signals, the EO modulator of each array element may be configured to perform at least one of amplitude modulation and phase modulation, where at least one of the amplitude modulations and the phase modulation is based on encoded data. The antenna elements may be configured to receive optical signals, the EO modulator of each array element may be configured to perform at least one of phase modulation and amplitude modulation, and a decoder may be configured to recover data.