Beam steering system

1. A beam steering system, comprising:

a liquid crystal (LC) beam steering device including:

LC molecules arranged between a pair of substrates; and

at least one electrode;

an upstream lens arranged upstream of the LC beam steering device, the upstream lens reducing a beam width of a light beam to provide a reduced-diameter light beam incident at the LC beam steering device; and

control electronics configured to dynamically control the at least one electrode of the LC beam steering device to influence the LC molecules to affect a directional steering of the reduced-diameter beam and thereby output a directionally steered beam;

wherein the upstream lens has a focal plane; and

wherein the LC beam steering device is arranged upstream of focal plane of the upstream lens.

2. The beam steering system of claim 1 , wherein a beam diameter of the reduced-diameter beam incident at the LC beam steering device is smaller than a clear aperture of the LC beam steering device.

3. The beam steering system of claim 1 , wherein the control electronics are configured to dynamically control the at least one electrode of the LC beam steering device to control a steering angle of the directionally steered beam output by the LC beam steering device.

4. The beam steering system of claim 1 , further comprising a downstream lens arranged downstream of the upstream lens.

5. The beam steering system of claim 4 , wherein the downstream lens is arranged downstream of the LC beam steering device.

6. The beam steering system of claim 5 , wherein a focal distance of the upstream lens is greater than a focal distance of the downstream lens.

7. The beam steering system of claim 5 , wherein the downstream lens reduces a beam width of the directionally steered beam output by the LC beam steering device.

8. The beam steering system of claim 4 , wherein the downstream lens is arranged upstream of the LC beam steering device.

9. The beam steering system of claim 1 , wherein:

the LC beam steering device includes an array of multiple LC beam steering segments, each LC beam steering segment including LC molecules and at least one associated electrode; and

the upstream lens comprises a lens array including multiple lens elements, each lens element reducing a beam width of a respective light beam to provide a respective reduced-diameter light beam incident at a corresponding LC beam steering segment.

10. A beam steering system, comprising:

a dynamically controllable multi-segment liquid crystal (LC) beam steering device including an array of multiple LC beam steering segments, wherein each LC beam steering segment includes a respective clear aperture; and

an upstream lens array arranged upstream of the multi-segment LC beam steering device, the upstream lens array including multiple upstream lens elements corresponding with the multiple LC beam steering segments;

wherein each upstream lens element reduces a beam width of a respective light beam to provide a respective reduced-diameter light beam incident at a corresponding LC beam steering segment in the multi-segment LC beam steering device, wherein a beam diameter of the respective reduced-diameter beam incident at each LC beam steering segment is smaller than the respective clear aperture of that LC beam steering segment; and

control electronics configured to control each respective LC beam steering segment to directionally steer the respective reduced-diameter beam incident at the respective LC beam steering segment to output a respective directionally steered beam.

11. The beam steering system of claim 10 , wherein each respective LC beam steering segment includes:

LC molecules arranged between a pair of substrates; and

at least one electrode controllable by the control electronics to generate an asymmetric reorientation of the LC molecules that influences a steering angle of the directionally steered beam output by the respective LC beam steering segment.

12. The beam steering system of claim 10 , wherein:

the upstream lens array has a focal plane; and

the multi-segment LC beam steering device is arranged upstream of focal plane of the upstream lens array.

13. The beam steering system of claim 10 , further comprising a downstream lens array arranged downstream of the upstream lens array, the downstream lens array including multiple downstream lens elements, each respective downstream lens element corresponding with a respective LC beam steering segment in the array of LC beam steering segments.

14. The beam steering system of claim 13 , wherein the downstream lens array is arranged downstream of the multi-segment LC beam steering device.

15. The beam steering system of claim 14 , wherein a focal distance of the upstream lens array is greater than a focal distance of the downstream lens array.

16. The beam steering system of claim 13 , wherein the downstream lens array is arranged upstream of the multi-segment LC beam steering device.

17. The beam steering system of claim 10 , wherein the multiple upstream lens elements comprise spherical lenses.

18. The beam steering system of claim 10 , wherein:

the multi-segment LC beam steering device includes a two-dimensional array of LC beam steering segments; and

the upstream lens array comprises a two-dimensional array of upstream lens elements.

19. A beam steering system, comprising:

a liquid crystal (LC) beam steering device including:

LC molecules arranged between a pair of substrates; and

at least one electrode;

an upstream lens arranged upstream of the LC beam steering device, the upstream lens reducing a beam width of a light beam to provide a reduced-diameter light beam incident at the LC beam steering device; and

a downstream lens arranged downstream of the LC beam steering device, wherein a focal distance of the upstream lens is greater than a focal distance of the downstream lens; and

control electronics configured to dynamically control the at least one electrode of the LC beam steering device to influence the LC molecules to affect a directional steering of the reduced-diameter beam and thereby output a directionally steered beam.

20. The beam steering system of claim 19 , wherein:

the upstream lens has a focal plane; and

the LC beam steering device is arranged upstream of focal plane of the upstream lens.