Sweeper demonstrates wide-angle optical phased array technology

Many essential military capabilities--including autonomous navigation, chemical-biological sensing, precision targeting and communications--increasingly rely upon laser-scanning technologies such as LIDAR (think radar that uses light instead of radio waves). These technologies provide amazing high-resolution information at long ranges but have a common Achilles heel: They require mechanical assemblies to sweep the laser back and forth. These large, slow opto-mechanical systems are both temperatu...