Optical Chirp Z-Transform Processor: Design and Application

This paper presents, to the author's knowledge, for the first time, a novel all-optical signal processing functionality, namely, a reconfigurable optical chirp z-transform (OCZT) processor. It is shown that the well-known non-tunable discrete Fourier transform (DFT) processors computed using the fast Fourier transform algorithm are a special case of the chirp z-transform (CZT) algorithm. A novel tunable DFT processor is proposed as a special case of the CZT algorithm. The tunable OCZT processor is designed using the CZT algorithm and synthesized using the silica-based planar lightwave circuit technology. To demonstrate its effectiveness, the design and simulation results of a novel optical discrete Fourier transform processor as a special case of the synthesized OCZT are presented.