To meet the growing demand for high-frequency broadband signal processing in complex electromagnetic environments and to overcome the limitations of conventional 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 employs a two-stage optical filtering strategy that circumvents the stringent wavelength alignment requirements typical of conventional designs, thereby significantly easing system integration challenges. In the first stage, 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 incorporates 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 mitigate issues found in conventional multimode interference (MMI) couplers—such as high insertion loss—and in straight directional couplers, which suffer from significant coupling dispersion. The optimized curved coupler exhibits an insertion loss below 0.03 dB and less than 10% variation in coupling ratio 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, allowing dynamic adjustment of the coupling coefficients. Each filter demonstrates a continuously tunable 3 dB bandwidth ranging from 2.25 GHz to 3.12 GHz, with a superior 20 dB/3 dB shape factor of 3.08. This performance signifies markedly improved roll-off characteristics compared to traditional filter designs, leading to enhanced suppression of image frequency components and improved signal separation fidelity.
A complete microwave photonic channelized reception link is constructed using the integrated WDM-CROW filter bank. System-level simulations confirm that the architecture offers remarkable broadband adaptability, supporting the channelization of radio frequency (RF) signals across 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 multi-scenario signal processing requirements. 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 conventional channelized reception architectures.