Thermally-efficient reconfigurable narrowband RF-photonic filter

Abstract

We present the design and fabrication of thermally-efficient tuning structures integrated into a narrowband reconfigurable radio-frequency (RF)-photonics filter using silicon-on-insulator waveguide optical delay lines. By introducing thermal isolation trenching, we are able to achieve IIR, FIR or arbitrary mixed response with less than 120 mW average tuning power in a single RF-photonic unit cell filter.

Application of photonics in next generation telecommunication satellites payloads

“…Photonic integrated filters in InP and Silicon are being pursued in DoD and DARPA funded projects in the US. For example, micro-cavity RF filters in InP have been recently developed by Freedom Photonics [6], whereas thermally-efficient reconfigurable narrowband RF-photonic filters in silicon have been demonstrated by US-based Kotura [7]. The latter is now considered as a promising candidate for RF photonic applications since it overcomes the disadvantages of micro-cavity filters and combines: small size, integration using industrial CMOS-compatible methods, narrow bandwidth (<50 MHz) and low power consumption (120 mW per filter cell).…”

Photonic arbitrary waveform generator based on Taylor synthesis method

“…By thermally adjusting the amplitudes and phases of initial pulse, first-, second-and third-order differential waveforms generated by cascaded microrings, we obtain several typical waveforms such as triangular waveform, sawtooth waveform, square waveform, flat-top waveform and Gaussian waveform, and so forth. Our scheme is compact, small power consumption and capable for integration with electronics [22,23]. Comparing with other schemes, our scheme has no requirements of high frequency resolution disperser, coherent detection and large dispersion.…”

Optical micro-multi-racetrack resonator filter based on SOI waveguides

“…Recently researchers have begun to design multi-tap microwave photonic FIR filter based on single-mode and multimode fibers [15]. An important consideration is the size of the components, and thus there is much interest in production of on-chip optical components.…”

“…The advantage of this design is that although it is an FIR filter it uses the inherent properties of the racetrack resonator itself which is an IIR filter. Therefore, such filter should be extremely flexible, while our unique realization involves realizing plurality of racetrack resonators with slightly different Finesse instead of adding a delay line [15].…”