Silicon-on-Insulator Microwave Photonic Filter With Widely Tunable and Reconfigurable Flat-Top Bandpass Functionality

We report of a silicon photonics (SiP) flat-top bandpass microwave photonic (MWP) filter with large out-of-band power rejection (OBPR) of up to more than 40 dB and exhibiting central frequency tunability over a range as large as 70 GHz, while still guaranteeing a minimum full-span OBPR larger than 25 dB. Furthermore, the RF bandpass transfer function can be widely configured without sacrificing the filter performance. In the present realization, a continuous bandwidth tuning from 5 to 10 GHz (corresponding to a 100% of bandwidth variation) is demonstrated. The operation is based on optical-to-RF mapping the response of a tunable and bandwidth reconfigurable photonic integrated optical filter, realized with a high-order distributed feedback resonator (DFBR) waveguide Bragg grating structure. A high level of functional integration is provided in a compact footprint of less than 2 mm ² by embedding within the circuit a SiP phase modulator generating the modulation sideband scanning the DFBR filter, and a tunable optical splitter optimizing the MWP filter performance. Possibility of further extending system integration for monolithic on-chip operation is also investigated.