To meet the growing demand for high-frequency broadband signal processing in complex electromagnetic environments and to overcome the limitations of traditional electronic systems such as restricted bandwidth, limited response speed, and low integration density, this paper presents a reconfigurable microwave photonic channelized receiver chip implemented on a silicon photonic platform. The proposed architecture adopts a two-stage optical filtering strategy that circumvents the typical strict wavelength alignment requirements in traditional designs, thereby greatly alleviating the challenges of system integration. In the first stage, the cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI)-based wavelength division multiplexers (WDMs) are used to perform Gaussian-shaped filtering of the input optical spectrum with a channel spacing of approximately 200 GHz. The second stage combines an array of coupled resonator optical waveguide (CROW) filters functioning as finely tunable bandpass elements. These CROW filters utilize curved waveguide directional couplers, which are specifically designed to address the issues found in traditional multimode interference (MMI) couplers such as high insertion loss—and in straight directional couplers, which encounter significant coupling dispersion. The optimized curved coupler exhibits an insertion loss below 0.03 dB and a coupling ratio variation of less than 10% across the 1500–1600 nm wavelength band. Filter bandwidth reconfigurability is achieved via thermo-optic tuning of the balanced MZI embedded within each CROW filter, enabling dynamic adjustment of the coupling coefficients. Each filter exhibits a continuously adjustable 3 dB bandwidth ranging from 2.25 GHz to 3.12 GHz, with an excellent 20 dB/3 dB shape factor of 3.08. This performance indicates significantly improved roll-off characteristics compared with the performance of traditional filter designs, leading to enhanced suppression of image frequency components and improved signal separation fidelity.

A complete microwave photon channelized receiving link is constructed using an integrated WDM-CROW filter bank. System-level simulations confirm that the architecture provides excellent broadband adaptability, supporting the channelization of radio frequency (RF) signals in two operational bands: 8–28 GHz and 8–36 GHz. The system efficiently decomposes the input wideband RF signal into eight independent intermediate frequency (IF) sub-bands. Within each sub-band, an image rejection ratio (IRR) exceeding 22 dB is maintained. The corresponding IF ranges are 1.4–3.6 GHz when configured for 8–28 GHz RF input, and 2–5 GHz for 8–36 GHz input, covering critical communication and detection bands from X-band to K-band and satisfying the requirements of multi-scenario signal processing. Furthermore, we simulate the reception and reconstruction of a 5 GHz bandwidth linear frequency-modulated (LFM) signal, successfully verifying the chip’s capability in handling wideband waveforms. These results underscore the feasibility of the proposed chip as a high-performance solution for advanced applications such as radar detection and broadband electronic warfare systems, offering a novel, integrated photonic alternative to traditional channelized reception architectures.