US Patent 11476576 Photonic integrated circuit-based communication transmit/receive system

A device includes a photonic integrated circuit (PIC), which includes an optical phased array. The optical phased array includes multiple array elements, where each array element includes (i) an antenna element configured to transmit or receive optical signals and (ii) a phase modulator configured to modulate the optical signals transmitted or received by the antenna element. The PIC also includes at least one of (i) a source laser configured to generate optical energy, where the antenna elements are configured to transmit the optical signals based on the optical energy, and (ii) a receiver configured to receive and process the optical signals received by the antenna elements.