Silicon nitride microwave photonic circuits

We present an overview of several microwave photonic processing functionalities based on combinations of Mach-Zehnder and ring resonator filters using the high index contrast silicon nitride (TriPleX (TM)) waveguide technology. All functionalities are built using the same basic building blocks, namely straight waveguides, phase tuning elements and directional couplers. We recall previously shown measurements on high spurious free dynamic range microwave photonic (MWP) link, ultra-wideband pulse generation, instantaneous frequency measurements, Hilbert transformers, microwave polarization networks and demonstrate new measurements and functionalities on a 16 channel optical beamforming network and modulation format transformer as well as an outlook on future microwave photonic platform integration, which will lead to a significantly reduced footprint and thereby enables the path to commercially viable MWP systems. (c) 2013 Optical Society of America