Microwave photonic filter with reconfigurable and tunable bandpass response using integrated optical signal processor based on microring resonator

A bandpass microwave photonic filter based on an integrated optical signal processor is proposed and demonstrated by numerical simulation. The optical signal processor consisting of double-bus-coupled and series-cascaded silicon microrings (MRs) is used to produce two bandpass responses to process optical carrier signal and sideband signal separately. Because of the tunability of MRs, variable -3 dB bandwidth and tunable operating frequency are achieved. The -3 dB bandwidth and operating frequency can be tuned from 1.5 to 12 GHz and from 15 to 34 GHz, respectively. The loss impact, tuning method, and fabrication error tolerance are also discussed. (C) 2013 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)