US 11,809,060 B2
Segmented digital to optical phase-shift converter
Pedram Lajevardi, Menlo Park, CA (US); Behnam Behroozpour, S. San Francisco, CA (US); Christoph Lang, Sunnyvale, CA (US); and Ken Wojciechowski, Cupertino, CA (US)
Assigned to Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart (DE)
Appl. No. 16/964,782
Filed by Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart (DE)
PCT Filed Jan. 24, 2019, PCT No. PCT/EP2019/051768
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jul. 24, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/149617, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 8, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/624,210, filed on Jan. 31, 2018.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/624,213, filed on Jan. 31, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0055625 A1, Feb. 25, 2021
Int. Cl. G02F 1/295 (2006.01); G02F 1/025 (2006.01)
CPC G02F 1/2955 (2013.01) [G02F 1/025 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical element for transmitting a light beam comprising:
a waveguide configured to transmit the light beam from an input end to an output end, said waveguide having an optical property that can be selectively modified; and
a phase-shifter incorporated into said waveguide, said phase shifter operable to modify an optical property of said waveguide in response to a control signal to induce a phase shift in the light beam propagated therethrough, wherein said phase shifter includes two or more adjacent segments, each segment configured to induce a phase shift in response to said control signal that is separate from a phase shift induced by any other segment,
wherein said phase-shifter is operable to modify the optical property of said waveguide in response to an electrical voltage as said control signal,
wherein said two or more segments have different lengths relative to one another,
wherein said control signal includes a separate control signal for each of said two or more segments of said phase-shifter,
wherein each of said separate control signals is an n-bit voltage signal, where n is two (2) or more, and
wherein the number of bits of the n-bit voltage signal is different between two or more of said two or more segments of said phase-shifter, with the number of bits determined in relation to a length of each of said two or more segments.