Design and Fabrication of a Test Board Assembly for a Silicon Photonics LIDAR Device

The development of Silicon Photonics LIDAR (Laser Imaging, Detection, And Ranging) devices for applications such as autonomous driving has been progressing with many different approaches that can be used to achieve the LIDAR transmitter device mostly based on an Optical Phased Array (OPA). In this paper two different approaches at the eye safe 1550nm range are described: - a Silicon Photonics LIDAR based on OPA’s with a simplified electrical driving architecture and an array of Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometers, - an only MZ device used to switch the light output between grating devices to provide beam steering of the LIDAR beam. The design for a Test Board of a Silicon Photonics LIDAR device incorporating a control system for controlling the OPA and the matrix of MZ switches is outlined along with the LIDAR packaging, assembly, and the alignment of collimating lenses to enable the angular deflection of the LIDAR device.