A method and apparatus is provided for control of plural optical phase shifters in an optical device, such as a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer switch. Drive signal magnitude is set using a level setting input and is used for operating both phase shifters, which may have similar characteristics due to co-location and co-manufacture. A device state control signal selects which of the phase shifters receives the drive signal. One or more switches may be used to route the drive signal to the selected phase shifter. Separate level control circuits and state control circuits operating at different speeds may be employed. When the phase shifters are asymmetrically conducting (e.g. carrier injection) phase shifters, a bi-polar drive circuit can be employed. In this case, the phase shifters can be connected in reverse-parallel, and the drive signal polarity can be switchably reversed in order to drive a selected one of the phase shifters.

A method and apparatus is provided for control of plural optical phase shifters in an optical device, such as a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer switch. Drive signal magnitude is set using a level setting input and is used for operating both phase shifters, which may have similar characteristics due to co-location and co-manufacture. A device state control signal selects which of the phase shifters receives the drive signal. One or more switches may be used to route the drive signal to the selected phase shifter. Separate level control circuits and state control circuits operating at different speeds may be employed. When the phase shifters are asymmetrically conducting (e.g. carrier injection) phase shifters, a bi-polar drive circuit can be employed. In this case, the phase shifters can be connected in reverse-parallel, and the drive signal polarity can be switchably reversed in order to drive a selected one of the phase shifters.

An optical selective switch includes N input ports, M output ports, an input passive deflection element, an input active deflection element, an output passive deflection element, and an output active deflection element. Each input port is configured to receive input light. Each output port is configured to output to-be-output light from the output port. The input passive deflection element is configured to deflect the input light to a direction corresponding to an intermediate output port. The input active deflection element is configured to deflect the input light to a direction corresponding to a target output port based on the deflection of the input passive deflection element. The output passive deflection element is configured to deflect the to-be-output light to the direction corresponding to the intermediate output port. The output active deflection element is configured to deflect the to-be-output light to the target output port.

An optical selective switch includes N input ports, M output ports, an input passive deflection element, an input active deflection element, an output passive deflection element, and an output active deflection element. Each input port is configured to receive input light. Each output port is configured to output to-be-output light from the output port. The input passive deflection element is configured to deflect the input light to a direction corresponding to an intermediate output port. The input active deflection element is configured to deflect the input light to a direction corresponding to a target output port based on the deflection of the input passive deflection element. The output passive deflection element is configured to deflect the to-be-output light to the direction corresponding to the intermediate output port. The output active deflection element is configured to deflect the to-be-output light to the target output port.

A method for manipulating an input vector is described. The method involves controlling a plurality of optical switches to obtain a nominal orientation vector or a transpose orientation vector based on a plurality of input optical signals encoding the input vector and received at the plurality of optical switches. The nominal orientation vector and the transpose orientation vector represent transposed versions of one another. A memory system comprising a first section configured to store vectors in accordance with a nominal orientation and a second section configured to store vectors in accordance with a transpose orientation. A controller stores the nominal orientation vector in the first section of the memory system or stores the transpose orientation vector in the second section of the memory system.

Optical switch trees are commonly used to route light from one input channel to multiple possible output channels one at a time. As the number of output channels increases, the number of wire-bonding pads increases and the drive electronics becomes more complicated. The optical switch tree comprises an array of optical switches arranged in a plurality of rows of optical switches, each connected by a row bus, which are connected to a first multiplexer and a common power source; and a plurality of columns of optical switches, each connected by a column bus, which are connected to a second multiplexer and a common ground. A control processor selects one of the plurality of columns of optical switches to connect to the common ground, and selects one of the plurality of rows of optical switches to connect to the common power source, thereby selecting a single optical switch in the array of optical switches to activate.

An eye tracker having a first waveguide for propagating illumination light along a first waveguide path and propagating image light reflected from at least one surface of an eye along a second waveguide path. At least one grating lamina for deflecting the illumination light out of the first waveguide path towards the eye and deflecting the image light into the second waveguide path towards a detector is disposed adjacent an optical surface of the waveguide.

Provided are a switchable viewing angle display module and a vehicle. The display module comprises a viewing angle switching panel, a liquid crystal display panel, and a driver circuit. The viewing angle switching panel includes a first substrate and a second substrate, a dye liquid crystal layer, and a drive electrode layer. The drive electrode layer is disposed on a side of the first substrate and/or the second substrate facing the dye liquid crystal layer. The drive electrode layer includes a plurality of drive electrodes arranged sequentially along a first direction, and an interval of a preset length is set between two adjacent ones of the plurality of drive electrodes. The driver circuit is electrically connected to the plurality of drive electrodes, respectively and configured to provide sequentially increasing drive voltages to the plurality of drive electrodes arranged sequentially along the first direction.

Provided is a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) apparatus including a plurality of switches connected in a binary tree structure, a light source and a photodetector respectively connected to a root switch provided on a root node of the binary tree structure, and a light transmission/reception optical system connected to a plurality of terminal switches provided at a plurality of terminal nodes of the binary tree structure, the light transmission/reception optical system being configured to transmit light to an outside of the LiDAR apparatus or receive light from the outside, wherein the root switch is a 2×2 switch including a first upstream side port, a second upstream side port, a first downstream side port, and a second downstream side port, and wherein the light source is connected to the first upstream side port and the photodetector is connected to the second upstream side port.

A reconfigurable polarization rotator is formed of an array of very small liquid crystal (LC) cells (e.g., cells of less than 10 μm in width, termed “microcells”), referred to hereinafter as “microcells”. Each LC microcell is addressable by a separate electrical voltage input that independently controls the polarization rotation performed by the associated LC microcell. By defining a set of adjacent microcells to be held at the same voltage level, that group may be used to form a polarization rotator window of a proper size for a first fiber array configuration. When a fiber array of a different configuration (say, an array with twice the pitch) is used, a different-sized group of adjacent LC microcells is held at a common voltage level so as to form a reconfigured “window” of a new dimension.