Design And Simulation Of A Planar Micro-Optic Free-Space Receiver

We propose a compact directional optical receiver for free-space communications, where a microlens array and microoptic structures selectively couple light from a narrow incidence angle into a thin slab waveguide and then to an edgemounted detector. A small lateral translation of the lenslet array controls the coupled input angle, enabling the receiver to select the transmitter source direction. We present the optical design and simulation of a 10mm x 10mm aperture receiver using a 30 mu m thick silicon waveguide able to couple up to 2.5Gbps modulated input to a 10mm x 30 mu m wide detector.