Patent ID: 7627253

Claim:
An RF photonic transversal filter comprising: an optical modulator for receiving a set of single frequency waves; an antenna coupled to the optical modulator for receiving an RF input and providing the RF input to the optical modulator; a circulator coupled to the optical modulator for receiving the set of single frequency waves modulated by the RF input; a dispersive optical delay coupled to the circulator for reflecting modulated single frequency waves while separating the modulated single frequency waves by introducing a time delay between reflected modulated single frequency waves; a first time delay element coupled to the circulator for receiving separated reflected modulated single frequency waves from the circulator and for delaying all of the separated reflected modulated single frequency waves by a first delay amount; an optical filter coupled to the circulator for receiving the separated reflected modulated single frequency waves from the circulator and passing through a subset of the separated reflected modulated single frequency waves; and a group of function forming operators each coupled to the optical filter, each function forming operator receiving the subset from the optical filter and each function forming operator generating an electrical signal, each function forming operator including: a second time delay element coupled to the optical filter for receiving the subset from the optical filter and delaying all members of the subset by a second delay amount; and an attenuator coupled to the second time delay element for attenuating amplitudes of all of the members by an attenuation factor; and photodetectors, each photodetector either coupled to the attenuator of one of the function forming operators for converting an attenuated amplitude of each one of the members of the subset into an electrical signal or coupled to the first time delay element for converting each delayed separated reflected modulated single frequency waves into an electrical signal, wherein a sum of electrical signal outputs of the photodetectors forms a filtered RF output signal.