a practical means for electrically addressing the extremely large number and high density of phase shifters needed for operation of an optical phased array beam steerer . the array of phase shifters is subdivided into identical subarrays which completely fill an optical aperture . all subarrays are connected electrically in parallel by electrically interconnecting corresponding electrodes of each subarray . methods are disclosed herein for providing an enhanced number of beam steering positions for the subaperture - addressed beam steerer .