Compact microwave photonic transversal filter with 40-dB sidelobe suppression

A compact mass-production ready 18-tap microwave photonic filter based on fiber Bragg gratings which slice a light source spectrum is presented. The operation frequency, 3-dB bandwidth, sidelobe suppression, and total length of the filter are 10 GHz, 0.8 GHz, 40 dB, and 17.9 cm, respectively. The fiber Bragg gratings comprising the filter are fabricated with high accuracy as a single supergrating, which guarantees almost identical performance between the fabricated and designed filters as well as a fast and repeatable fabrication.