A Nonuniformly Spaced Microwave Photonic Filter Using a Spatially Discrete Chirped FBG

We report an experimental demonstration of a nonuniformly spaced photonic microwave delay-line filter implemented using an incoherent broadband optical source and a spatially discrete chirped fiber Bragg grating (SD-CFBG). The SD-CFBG performs simultaneously three functions: 1) to slice the spectrum of the broadband optical source for generating the filter taps; 2) to provide nonuniform time delays; and 3) to control the weights of the filter taps. Since negative or complex coefficients are equivalently generated based on the nonuniform sampling, a filter with an arbitrary spectra response is achieved. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, a flat-top bandpass microwave filter with seven all-positive nonuniformly spaced taps at 12 GHz is experimentally demonstrated. The proposed method offers a cost-effective and easy-to-implement solution for photonic microwave filters having arbitrary frequency responses.