Optical signal processing with planar lightwave circuits

We present a summary of our recent work on using lattice-form Mach-Zehnder interferometers implemented using silica-based planar lightwave circuit technology for optical signal processing. In particular, we demonstrate that the same device structure (either based on 6 taps or 12 taps) can be used to perform various signal processing functions ranging from pulse repetition rate multiplication to arbitrary waveform generation.