A 2048-channel, 125μW/ch DAC Controlling a 9,216-element Optical Phased Array Coherent Solid-State LiDAR

Abstract

A CMOS driver chip for controlling an optical phased array realizing $\mathrm{a}\gt50$ meter coherent LiDAR engine has been demonstrated. Five identical 2048-channel driver chips flip onto a single silicon photonics LiDAR engine IC containing the 9,216-element optical phased array. Each voltage-mode driver cell controls an individual electro-optic phase shifter in the array and adjusts the phase shift from 0 to $2 \pi$ over 8 bits. Each driver cell has an average power of $125 \mu \mathrm{W}$ with a resolve time of $\lt400$ ns and the driver chip is capable of a system pointto-point steering time $\lt 3.8 \mu \mathrm{s}$.