Generation of chirped microwave signal with any central frequency based on a nonuniformly spaced finite impulse response filter

A novel optical approach to generating a chirped microwave signal by using a nonuniformly spaced finite impulse response filter is proposed and demonstrated. In this scheme, a narrowband Gaussian pulse is used as the original chirped-free signal, which is easy to be acquired. To eliminate the need of a wideband chirped-free signal, a mixer and a radio frequency signal are used to up-convert the spectrum of the original Gaussian signal. Therefore, the required frequency response can be calculated and reconstructed by a finite impulse response filter with nonuniformly spaced taps. Besides, a dual drive Mach–Zehnder modulator is used to realize single sideband modulation of the chirpedfree signal. Thus, the transfer function induced by the fiber dispersion is eliminated and the chirped microwave signal with any central frequency can be generated. In this paper, a design example of a filter with a central frequency of 10GHz is provided, and generation of the target chirped microwave signal is also demonstrated by numerical simulations.