Tunable microwave-photonic filter using frequency-to-time mapping-based delay lines

A new implementation of microwave-photonic filters (MPFs) based on tunable optical delay lines is proposed and demonstrated. The variable delay is based on mapping of the spectral components of an incoming waveform onto the time domain, the application of linearly-varying temporal phase offsets, and an inverse mapping back to the frequency domain. The linear phase correction is equivalent to a frequency offset, and realized though suppressed-carrier single-sideband modulation by a radio-frequency sine wave. The variable delay element, controlled by the selected frequency, is used in one arm of a two-tap MPF. In a proof-of-concept experiment, the free spectral range (FSR) of the MPF was varied by over a factor of four: between 1.2 GHz and 5.3 GHz.