Active optical filters based integrated photonic circuits

This dissertation describes the simulation, fabrication, and DSP-based analysis and synthesis schemes for innovative active optical filter based integrated photonic circuits. We investigate the active optical filter based photonic devices both theoretically and experimentally. We fabricate a photonic true time delay cell by monolithically integrating waveguide splitters and Multiple Quantum Well Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers onto a single InP substrate. A 20 ns delay time is demonstrated on a single-bit true time delay device. Based on the extension of the similar system architecture, we design a direct form I realization tunable active optical filter. The frequency response of a third-order low-pass filter design example is studied and the filter coefficients are derived in terms of gains and coupler splitting ratios. The region of stable operations is derived by applying the Schur-Cohn stability test. By introducing four-port photonic couplers, we design a two-dimensional active optical lattice filter and develop the DSP-based analysis schemes for this innovative architecture.