PHOTONIC FDM MULTICHANNEL SELECTOR USING COHERENT OPTICAL TRANSVERSAL FILTER

This paper describes a photonic frequency-division-multiplexing (FDM) multichannel selector using a coherent optical transversal filter and discusses its application to a photonic FDM highway switch. The selector can select several arbitrary channels out of several multiplexed frequency channels. The selector function takes advantage of the fact that the filter can express arbitrary frequency characteristics. An experimental 16-tap filter is fabricated according to silica-based-waveguide technology, which can monolithically integrate a variety of optical components. Arbitrary channel selection and signal transmission characteristics are confirmed by measuring the frequency characteristics of the selector and the bit-error-rate performance.