Intelligent configuration of integrated microwave photonic filter with programmable response and self-stabilization

Abstract: Integrated microwave photonic filters (IMPFs) have emerged as promising candidates for advanced microwave systems owing to their distinctive combination of wide operational bandwidth, flexibility, and compact size. Nevertheless, the complex and time-consuming manual manipulation of IMPFs remains a significant impediment to their widespread applications. Here, to the best of our knowledge, we experimentally demonstrate the first intelligent configuration of IMPF featuring wideband center frequency tunability, flexible bandwidth reconfigurability, self-stabilization, and excellent channel equalization simultaneously. The configuration is enabled by our proposed universal hybrid collaboration strategy, which can fully unleash the hardware potential of the optical device, thus enabling comprehensive synergy of multiple properties. Results show that the center frequency of IMPF is tuned from 2 to 48 GHz, covering microwave S- to Ka-bands, and the bandwidth is reconfigured from 0.66 to 4.15 GHz, with a rejection ratio of up to 37.67 dB. The roll-off rate and shape factor reach as high as 17.50 dB/GHz and 0.78, respectively. Meanwhile, the maximum center frequency drift of IMPF in 3 hours is reduced from 11.950 to 0.051 GHz even without a thermo-electric cooler, indicating that the center frequency stability is enhanced by 234 times. The passband shape of the IMPF can also be dynamically adjusted to equalize frequency-dependent fading, achieving up to 2.42 dB compensation of intra-channel fading. Our work highlights the potential of IMPFs based on intelligent configuration, unlocking new avenues for practical applications of microwave photonic signal processing.