Inevitable manufacturing tolerances strongly degrade the fabrication yield of photonic integrated circuits (PICs), unless their effect on overall PIC performance characteristics is considered and mitigated during the PIC design process. This is especially true for PICs containing interferometric sub-circuits such as micro-ring optical filters, Mach-Zehnder interferometers, and arrayed waveguide gratings. The problem rapidly increases with the growth of complexity, which is currently observed while designing PICs for large-scale optical interconnects, LIDAR distribution networks, all-optical activation units for artificial neural networks, and multi-ring filters with complex custom transfer functions. Maximizing fabrication yield in such cases is a highly non-trivial task – it requires the development of special design approaches and easy access to statistical performance techniques during the simulations. We present a general-purpose schematic-driven PIC design framework that provides easy access to statistical performance techniques. Our design framework is based on statistical compact simulation models (CSMs) representing the photonic and optoelectronic building blocks (BBs) of foundry-specific process design kits (PDKs). We introduce a special technique that allows identifying critical light paths and applying automated phase compensation inside the models, which significantly simplifies the tolerances analysis, including estimating the final fabrication yield. The analysis of statistical parameter variations due to manufacturing tolerances on-waver and between wavers is supported as well by our presented approach. We demonstrate its application on complex PIC designs comprising of passive and active photonic building blocks.
Recent developments in versatile polymer-based technologies and hybrid integration processes offer a flexible and cost-efficient alternative for creating very complex photonic components and integrated circuits. The fast and efficient test, optimization and verification of new ideas requires an automated and reproducible simulation and design process supporting flexible layout-driven and layout-aware schematic-driven methodologies. Targeting very complex designs, even small fabrication tolerances of one building block could make a huge difference on the performance and manufacturability of the whole structure. To reduce risk of failure and to make performance predictions by virtual prototyping reliable, the simulation model of each single building block needs to be working correctly based not only on the appropriate mathematical and physical equations, but also on adequate information provided by the foundry where the final structure will be manufactured.
The PolyPhotonics Berlin consortium targets to address these design challenges and establish a new versatile integration platform combining polymer with Indium-Phosphide and thin-film filter based technologies for numerous photonics applications in the global communications and sensing market. In this paper we will present our methodologies for modelling and prototyping optical elements including hybrid coupling techniques, and compare them with exemplary characterization data obtained from measurements of fabricated devices and test structures. We will demonstrate how the seamless integration between photonic circuit and foundry knowledge enable the rapid virtual prototyping of complex photonic components and integrated circuits.
We present our versatile simulation framework for the schematic-driven and layout-aware design of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) realizing a fast and user-friendly design flow for large-scale PICs comprising passive and active building blocks (BBs). We show how the seamless interaction of circuit simulation with photonic layout design tools allows to specify and utilize directly physical locations and orientations of BBs of standardized process design kits (PDKs). We demonstrate how to combine graphical schematic capture and automated waveguide routing, and discuss by means of typical design applications how an optimized design flow can speed-up the virtual prototyping of complex PICs and optoelectronic applications.
We present our approach towards an automated design framework for integrated photonics and optoelectronics, based on
the experience of developing VPIcomponentMaker Photonic Circuits. We show that design tasks imposed by large-scale
integrated photonics require introducing new “functional” types of model parameters and extending the hierarchical
design approach with advanced parameter scripting capabilities. We discuss the requirements imposed by the need for
seamless integration between circuit-level and device-level simulators, and illustrate our approach for the combination of
VPIcomponentMaker Photonic Circuits and VPImodeDesigner. We show that accurate and scalable circuit-level
modeling of large-scale photonic integrated circuits requires combination of several frequency- and time-domain
simulation techniques (scattering-matrix assembly, transmission-line models, FIR and IIR digital filters, etc) within the
same circuit simulation. We extend the scattering-matrix assembly approach for modeling linear electronic circuits, and
motivate it being a viable alternative to the traditional modified nodal analysis approach employed in SPICE-like
electronic circuit simulators. Further, we present our approach to support process design kits (PDK) for generic foundries
of integrated photonics. It is based on the PDAFlow API which is designed to link different photonic simulation and
design automation tools. In particular, it allows design and optimization of photonic circuits for a selected foundry with
VPIcomponentMaker Photonic Circuits, and their subsequent export to PhoeniX OptoDesigner for layout verification
and GDSII mask generation.
This work addresses a versatile modeling of complex photonic integrated circuits (PICs) including optical and electrical sub-elements. We introduce a new family of electrical elements, together with a novel electronic-photonic co-design, that complements current capabilities of photonic circuit simulators. This is illustrated with the modeling of complex electric circuits contained in photonic devices. Simulations of the interaction between electrical and optical parts allow the analysis of unwanted effects such as reflections due to impedance mismatching, as well as the optimization of the PIC as a whole. We illustrate the functionalities of our approach through application examples. As a use case, we present a model of the electrical driver for a monolithically-integrated InP transmitter developed in frame of the European research project MIRTHE and the analysis of the driver and the EA-Modulator interplay.
This work addresses a versatile modeling of complex photonic integrated circuits (PICs). We introduce a co-simulation solution for combining the efficient modeling capabilities of a circuit-level simulator, based on analytical models of PIC sub-elements and frequency-dependent scattering matrix (S-matrix) description, and an accurate electromagnetic field simulator that implements the finite element method (FEM) for solving photonic structures with complicated geometries. This is exemplified with the model of a coupled-resonator induced transparency (CRIT), where resonator elements are first modeled in the field simulator. Afterwards, the whole structure is created at a circuit level and statistical analysis of tolerances is investigated.
This work addresses the efficient modeling of hybrid large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs) comprising both,
active and passive sub-elements. We describe a new modeling approach, the time-and-frequency-domain modeling
(TFDM) that improves accuracy, memory requirements and simulation speed in comparison with traditional pure timedomain
method. In TFDM, clusters of connected linear PIC elements are modeled in frequency domain, while
interconnections between such clusters and non-passive PIC elements are modeled in the time domain. Behavioral
models of the fundamental building blocks of PICs are presented and combined in several application examples showing
the robustness of the entire modeling framework for PICs.
We present techniques for modeling the physics and systems-level characteristics of integrated IQ-transmitters for 100G+ applications and emphasize important design aspects. Using time-and-frequency-domain modeling (TFDM) of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC), we present a detailed IQ-transmitter model based on the physics and setup of active and passive subcomponents. With this, we link characteristics of subcomponents (bending loss of waveguides, phase changes in MMI couplers, sweep-out time of EAMs) to systems-level characteristics of the integrated IQ-transmitter (extinction ratio, modulation bandwidth, chirp). Further, a behavioral transmitter model is introduced and utilized to assess electrical driving requirements (allowed jitter, noise, synchronization offset).
The exponentially growing number of components in complex large-scale Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) requires
the necessity of photonic design tools with system-level abstraction, which are efficient for designs enclosing hundreds
of elements. Ring-resonators and derived structures represent one example for large-scale photonics integration. Their
characteristics can be parameterized in the frequency-domain and described by scattering matrix (S-matrix) parameters.
The S-matrix method allows time efficient numerical simulations, decreasing the simulation time by several orders of
magnitude compared to time-domain approaches yielding a better modeling accuracy as the number of PIC elements
increases.
We present the modeling of optical waveguides within a sophisticated design environment using application examples
that contain ring-resonators as fundamental structure. In the models, the two orthogonally polarized guided modes are
characterized by their specific index and loss parameters. Systematic variation of circuit parameters, such as coupling
factor or refractive index, allows a comfortable design, analysis and optimization of many types of complex integrated
photonic structures.
We present the benefits and limitations for designing complex optical semiconductor-based integrated
structures by means of advanced numerical modeling. Multi-section tunable laser designs are presented and their
tuning properties are analyzed for different architectures. We introduce a model of an integrated SOA with electroabsorption
modulator. Its spectral properties are analyzed function of the parameters of the absorber section,
showing the influence on the extinction ration of the generated signal. An InP-type Mach-Zehnder modulator is
designed, illustrating the models of Kerr, Frank-Keldysh and QCSE effects. An example of a photo-detector
demonstrates how dimensions and absorption parameters can be optimized to increase its detection bandwidth.
We present a novel approach for the accurate and efficient modeling of photonic crystal-based integrated optical circuits. Within this approach, the electromagnetic field is expanded into an orthogonal basis of highly localized Wannier functions, which reduces Maxwell's equations to low-rank eigenvalue problems (for defect mode and waveguide dispersion calculations) or to sparse systems of linear equations (for transmission/reflection calculations through/from functional elements). We illustrate the construction of Wannier functions as well as the subsequent determination of defect modes, waveguide dispersion relations, and the characterization of functional elements for realistic two-dimensional photonic crystal structures consisting of square and triangular lattices of air pores in a high-index matrix. Moreover, on the basis of our Wannier function calculations we suggest a novel type of broad-band integrated photonic crystal circuits based on the infiltration of low-index materials such as liquid crystals or polymers into individual pores of these systems. We illustrate this concept through the design of several functional elements such as bends, beam splitters, and waveguide crossings.
We develop a theory of nonlinear localized modes in two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals and photonic-crystal waveguides. Employing the technique based on the Green function, we demonstrate that it provides an accurate method for investigating the existence and properties of localized defect modes. Using this technique, we describe the existence of nonlinear guided modes in photonic crystal waveguides and study their unique properties including bistability. We also show that low-amplitude nonlinear modes near the band edge of a reduced-symmetry 2D squarelattice photonic crystals, which are usually unstable, can be stabilized due to effective long-range linear and nonlinear interactions.
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