US 11,747,446 B1
Segmented illumination and polarization devices for tunable optical metasurfaces
Ross D. Uthoff, Seattle, WA (US); Apurva Jain, Lynwood, WA (US); Gleb M. Akselrod, Kenmore, WA (US); and Matthieu Saracco, Woodinville, WA (US)
Filed by Lumotive, Inc., Redmond, WA (US)
Filed on Aug. 26, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/822,718.
Int. Cl. G01S 7/481 (2006.01); G02F 1/31 (2006.01); G01S 7/499 (2006.01)
CPC G01S 7/4811 (2013.01) [G01S 7/4817 (2013.01); G01S 7/499 (2013.01); G02F 1/31 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A solid-state light detection and ranging (LiDAR) transmitter, comprising:
a tunable optical metasurface to selectively steer incident optical radiation between a first steering angle and a second steering angle along an azimuth axis;
a plurality of laser sources to generate optical radiation, wherein different subsets of the plurality of laser sources are configured to be selectively activated to generate optical radiation for incidence on the tunable optical metasurface at different angles of incidence on an elevation axis for unsteered deflection by the tunable optical metasurface at corresponding angles of elevation;
an optical assembly to collimate and linearly polarize the optical radiation generated by the plurality of laser sources;
a prism positioned relative to the tunable optical metasurface to:
deflect steered output optical radiation between a first transmit angle and a second transmit angle, wherein the difference between the first transmit angle and the second transmit angle is greater than the difference between the first steering angle and the second steering angle, and
deflect the optical radiation from the optical assembly by an optical radiation source for incidence on the tunable optical metasurface at an angle of incidence that is between the first steering angle and the second steering angle, such that the optical radiation incident on the tunable optical metasurface and the steered output optical radiation from the tunable optical metasurface spatially overlap within the prism for at least some steering angles between the first steering angle and the second steering angle; and
a controller to:
tune the tunable optical metasurface to steer incident optical radiation at a target azimuth angle, and
activate a subset of the plurality of laser sources to generate optical radiation for incidence on the tuned optical metasurface at an angle of incidence for unsteered deflection by the tuned optical metasurface at a target elevation angle.