Ultrahigh dynamic range and low noise figure programmable integrated microwave photonic filter

Area of Science:

• Microwave Photonics
• Integrated Photonics
• Radio Frequency Engineering

Background:

• Microwave photonics (MWP) has incorporated photonic integration, programmability, and enhanced radio frequency (RF) performance metrics.
• Historically, achieving these aspects simultaneously in a single circuit has been a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report a multi-functional photonic integrated circuit (PIC) capable of programmable filtering with unprecedented performance.
• To demonstrate reconfigurable filter functions with a record-low noise figure and an ultra-high dynamic range RF notch filter.

Main Methods:

• Development of a multi-functional PIC integrating versatile complex spectrum tailoring.
• Utilized an all-integrated modulation transformer and a double injection ring resonator as a multi-function optical filtering component.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated programmable filtering functions with record-high performance.
• Achieved reconfigurable filters with a record-low noise figure.
• Implemented an RF notch filter exhibiting ultra-high dynamic range.

Conclusions:

• The developed PIC successfully integrates advanced functionality and high performance, breaking from fragmented approaches.
• This work paves the way for the adoption of integrated MWP systems in practical applications.
• The novel approach enables versatile complex spectrum tailoring for advanced optical filtering.