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Photonic methods of radio-frequency waveform generation and processing can provide performance advantages and flexibility over electronic methods due to the ultrawide bandwidth offered by the optical carriers. However, bulk optics implementations suffer from the lack of integration and slow reconfiguration speed. Here we propose an architecture of integrated photonic radio-frequency generation and processing and implement it on a silicon chip fabricated in a semiconductor manufacturing foundry. Our device can generate programmable radio-frequency bursts or continuous waveforms with only the light source, electrical drives/controls and detectors being off-chip. It modulates an individual pulse in a radio-frequency burst within 4 ns, achieving a reconfiguration speed three orders of magnitude faster than thermal tuning. The on-chip optical delay elements offer an integrated approach to accurately manipulating individual radio-frequency waveform features without constraints set by the speed and timing jitter of electronics, and should find applications ranging from high-speed wireless to defence electronics.

͑Doc. ID 74779͒ The goal of the research program that we describe is to break the emerging performance wall in microprocessor development arising from limited bandwidth and density of on-chip interconnects and chip-to-chip (processor-tomemory) electrical interfaces. Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor compatible photonic devices provide an infrastructure for deployment of a range of integrated photonic networks, which will replace state-of-the-art electrical interconnects, providing significant gains at the system level. Scaling of wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) architectures using high-indexcontrast (HIC) waveguides offers one path to realizing the energy efficiency and density requirements of high data rate links. HIC microring-resonator filters are well suited to support add-drop nodes in dense WDM photonic networks with high aggregate data rates because they support high Q's and, due to their traveling-wave character, naturally support physically separated input and drop ports. A novel reconfigurable, "hitless" switch is presented that does not perturb the express channels either before, during, or after reconfiguration. In addition, multigigahertz operation of low-power, Mach-Zehnder silicon modulators as well as germanium-on-silicon photodiodes are presented.