We propose theoretically and demonstrate experimentally an optical architecture for flexible Ultra-Wideband pulse generation. It is based on an N-tap reconfigurable microwave photonic filter fed by a laser array by using phase inversion in a Mach-Zehnder modulator. Since a large number of positive and negative coefficients can be easily implemented, UWB pulses fitted to the FCC mask requirements can be generated. As an example, a four tap pulse generator is experimentally demonstrated which complies with the FCC regulation. The proposed pulse generator allows different pulse modulation formats since the amplitude, polarity and time delay of generated pulse is controlled.

No abstract

No abstract

A novel all-optical technique based on the incoherent processing of optical signals using high-order dispersive elements is analyzed for microwave arbitrary pulse generation. We show an approach which allows a full reconfigurability of a pulse in terms of chirp, envelope and central frequency by the proper control of the second-order dispersion and the incoherent optical source power distribution, achieving large values of time-bandwidth product.Photonic generation of chirped millimeter-wave pulses based on nonlinear frequency-to-time mapping in a nonlinearly chirped fiber Bragg grating," IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech. 56(2), 542-553 (2008). 12. H. Chi and J. Yao, "All-fiber chirped microwave pulses generation based on spectral shaping and wavelength-to-time conversion," IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech. 55(9), 1958-1963 (2007). 13. C. Wang and J. Yao, "Chirped microwave pulse generation based on optical spectral shaping and wavelength-to-time mapping using a Sagnac-loop mirror incorporating a chirped fiber Bragg grating," J. Lightwave Technol.

Abstract:We propose a novel photonic structure to implement a chirped single-bandpass microwave photonic filter based on the amplitude modulation of a broadband optical signal transmitted by a non-linear dispersive element and an interferometric system prior to balanced photodetection. A full reconfigurability of the filter is achieved since amplitude and phase responses can be independently controlled. We have experimentally demonstrated chirp values up to tens of ns/GHz, which is, as far as we know, one order of magnitude better than others achieved by electrical approaches and furthermore, without restrictions in terms of frequency tuning since a frequency operation range up to 40 GHz has been experimentally demonstrated. ©2011 Optical Society of America