Imaging-based beam steering for free-space optical communication.

Imaging-based beam steering (IBBS) provides a route to compact, low-power, and low-cost beam steering ideal for mobile free-space optical communications (FSOC), LIDAR imaging, and other active illumination applications. In IBBS, a lens passively maps each pixel of a 2D emitter array into a unique line-of-sight direction. Electronic beam steering of multiple beams with dynamic beam shaping is implemented via pixel selection.