Two-dimensional optical beam steering module

BACKGROUND

Wireless users will be carrying ever more devices with them, evolving to the era of hyperconnectivity, in which the number of devices connected to communication networks and the internet will exceed the number of persons by several orders of magnitude; e.g., it is predicted that every person may carry 50-60 devices in a few years time. This phenomenon is also known as "The internet of things". Wireless communication technology is essential for this. Although the hyperconnected world is extremely powerful in its conception, on the road towards it serious hurdles are put by the capabilities of radio-based wireless technologies. Wireless data rates, supported by subsequent standards, have shown impressive growth in the recent past; FIG. 1 shows how data rates have doubled each 18 months in the past decennia. With present radio techniques, this trend cannot be sustained, and radio techniques will reach their physical limits as the radio spectrum gets overcrowded and wireless devices start interfering with each other as the radio emission patterns will overlap. Radio beam steering by means of smart segmented antennas may alleviate this interference, but radio technologies do not allow tight confinement of the beams. Furthermore, due to the radiated fields which propagate as (part of) an extending sphere, the attenuation factor increases with the square of the distance, thus limiting their reach. Another reach-limiting factor is the atmospheric absorption of radio frequencies, aggravated by e.g. humidity.

What is needed is a wireless system that overcomes the radio technique barriers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To address the needs in the art, an ultra-high capacity interference-free communication system is provided that includes a central communication controller (CCC), where the CCC includes a wavelength-tunable light source that emits an optical data signal, where the optical data signal is a tunable wavelength, where the CCC controls the wavelength-tunable light source, where the control of the wavelength-tunable light source includes conditioning, modulation and wavelength-tuning of the optical data signal, and where the CCC includes a signal-transparent optical crossconnect. The invention further includes a fiber optic network, where the wavelength-tunable light source is coupled to the fiber optic network, a pencil-radiating antenna (PRA), where the PRA comprises a passive 2- dimensional diffractive module, where the PRA is coupled to the fiber optic network, where the PRA is coupled to the wavelength-tunable light source via the fiber optic network, where the signal-transparent optical crossconnect routes the optical data signal to the PRA, where the optical data signal is transmitted through a confined optical pencil beam, where the PRA deflects the confined optical pencil beam in 2 angular dimensions as a function of a wavelength of the confined optical pencil beam, where the deflected optical pencil beam is disposed for communication with an opto-electronic communication device, and a radio return channel, where the radio return channel carries a data signal from the opto-electronic communication device to the CCC and in case the optical signal is not established carries a lack-of-connection communication between the opto-electronic communication device and the CCC.

Desired business relationship

Patent licensing