Components with wafer level optics

Abstract

A plurality of light sources such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are configured to emit light through emission apertures. The light may be near-infrared light. Optics are formed over the emission apertures of the plurality of light sources. The optics may provide different tilt angles or divergence angles to the non-visible light emitted by the light sources in the plurality of light sources.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An article comprising:
 a semiconductor substrate;   light sources formed on the semiconductor substrate, wherein the light sources are configured to emit light; and   an encapsulant layer formed over the semiconductor substrate and over emission apertures of the light sources, wherein wafer level optics (WLOs) are formed in the encapsulant layer over the emission apertures of the light sources.   
     
     
         2 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein the light sources include vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), and wherein a first WLO among the WLOs is formed on and contacts a first VCSEL mesa of a first VCSEL among the VCSELs, and wherein a second WLO among the WLOs is formed on a second VCSEL mesa of a second VCSEL among the VCSELs, the first WLO configured to provide a first divergence angle to first light emitted by the first VCSEL, and the second WLO configured to provide a second divergence angle to second light emitted by the second VCSEL, the first divergence angle being different from the second divergence angle. 
     
     
         3 . The article of  claim 2 , wherein the first WLO is not formed on more than one VCSEL mesa of the VCSELs, and wherein the second WLO is not formed on more than one VCSEL mesa of the VCSELs. 
     
     
         4 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein the WLOs are configured to diverge laser emissions emitted out of the emission apertures. 
     
     
         5 . The article of  claim 4 , wherein the WLOs increase their divergence angles as the WLOs get closer to an outside boundary of the encapsulant layer. 
     
     
         6 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein the WLOs increase a tilt angle of a beam of the light as a given WLO gets closer to an outside boundary of the encapsulant layer. 
     
     
         7 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein the WLOs include at least one of a refractive optic, a surface relief grating, catadioptric lenses or prisms, or a metalens, and wherein the encapsulant layer is optically transparent, and wherein the encapsulant layer contacts the light sources and the semiconductor substrate. 
     
     
         8 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein the light emitted by the light sources is narrow-band near-infrared light. 
     
     
         9 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein the light sources are configured to emit non-visible laser light. 
     
     
         10 . A optical component comprising:
 an optically transparent substrate;   vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) disposed with the optically transparent substrate, wherein the VCSELs are configured to emit near-infrared light;   a first WLO formed on a first VCSEL mesa of a first VCSEL among the VCSELs, wherein the first WLO is formed over a first emission aperture of the first VCSEL; and   a second WLO formed on a second VCSEL mesa of a second VCSEL among the VCSELs, wherein the second WLO is formed over a second emission aperture of the second VCSEL.   
     
     
         11 . The optical component of  claim 10 , wherein the first WLO is configured to provide a first divergence angle to first near-infrared light emitted by the first VCSEL, and wherein the second WLO is configured to provide a second divergence angle to second near-infrared light emitted by the second VCSEL, the first divergence angle being different from the second divergence angle. 
     
     
         12 . The optical component of  claim 10 , wherein the first WLO is not formed on more than one VCSEL mesa of the VCSELs, and wherein the second WLO is not formed on more than one VCSEL mesa of the VCSELs. 
     
     
         13 . The optical component of  claim 10  further comprising:
 additional WLOs, wherein the additional WLOs increase their divergence angles as a given WLO gets closer to an outside boundary of the optically transparent substrate. 
 
     
     
         14 . The optical component of  claim 10  further comprising:
 additional WLOs, wherein the additional WLOs increase a tilt angle of a beam of the near-infrared light as a given WLO gets closer to an outside boundary of the optically transparent layer. 
 
     
     
         15 . The optical component of  claim 10 , wherein the first WLO includes at least one of a refractive optic, a surface relief grating, a blaze grating, a chirped grating, catadioptric lenses or prisms, a metalens, a reflective optic, or an engineered diffuser. 
     
     
         16 . The optical component of  claim 10 , wherein the near-infrared light emitted by the VCSELs is narrow-band near-infrared light. 
     
     
         17 . A method of fabricating vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with wafer level optics (WLO), the method comprising:
 providing a wafer having a plurality of VCSEL mesas;   forming a first WLO onto a first VCSEL mesa in the plurality of VCSEL mesas, wherein the first WLO is configured to provide a first divergence angle to a laser emission of the first VCSEL mesa, wherein the first WLO contacts the first VCSEL mesa; and   forming a second WLO onto a second VCSEL mesa in the plurality of VCSEL mesas, wherein the second WLO is configured to provide a second divergence angle to a laser emission of the second zone of VCSEL mesas, the first divergence angle different from the second divergence angle, and wherein the second WLO contacts the second VCSEL mesa.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the first WLO is not formed on more than one VCSEL mesa in the plurality of VCSEL mesas, and wherein the second WLO is not formed on more than one VCSEL mesa in the plurality of VCSEL mesas. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the VCSELs are configured to emit narrowband near-infrared light. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the first WLO includes at least one of a refractive optic, a surface relief grating, a blaze grating, a chirped grating, catadioptric lenses or prisms, a metalens, a reflective optic, or an engineered diffuser.