Optical phased array antenna apodization for lidar in autonomous vehicles

Abstract

This paper presents the specific design of an Optical Phased Array antenna (OPA) to apodize the emission of a lidar in the context of a project where diverse optoelectronic sensors such as cameras, radars, and commercial lidars are used to provide data in order to fuse them and develop perception for robots as future autonomous vehicles. While mechanical based lidars are already commercially available, this work focuses on designing much more robust and potentially cheaper lidars based on photonic integrated circuits and energy optimization through the apodization of the emission of the OPA.

This publication is part of the Spanish I+D+i project: PTAS-20211011, “Percepción Inteligente para los Vehículos Autónomos y Conectados”, INPERCEPT, funded by CDTI/MCIN and TRAINER-B (ref. PID2020-118011GB-C22), funded by MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033.

Peer Reviewed

Postprint (published version)