Solutions | Photonics
The high index contrast of SOI shrinks bend radii to the micrometer scale, but it also couples light, electricity and heat tightly within a single component. Modulators, photodetectors and fiber coupling all end up being solved in the same design.
Design challenges
Silicon offers neither usable gain nor a linear electro-optic effect. Modulation comes from carrier depletion or the Franz-Keldysh effect, and photodetection from germanium. A phase shifter is a heater, and its heat reaches the neighboring components. A design that looks right for a component on its own can fail once the coupling is included.
Design and simulation workflow
Build the component geometry in line with the real mask, etch and implant conditions.
Settle the waveguide cross-section, bends, splitters, crossings and resonators with mode and propagation analysis.
Design a grating coupler or an edge coupler.
Solve carrier transport, optical absorption and high-frequency response of modulators and photodetectors together.
Obtain heater efficiency and thermal coupling between components, and pass them to the circuit calculation.
Reduce the extracted results to compact models and confirm performance as a circuit.
The stages differ by project. You can bring an existing design or measured data and start partway through.
Related analysis technologies
The principles and scope of each method are explained on the Analysis Technologies pages.
Related products
The capabilities and coverage of each product are described on its own product page.
Handles waveguide, bend and planar propagation design. FDE, EME and varFDTD are used according to the structure.
Stage / 02
Handles rigorous analysis of resonators and grating couplers. Three-dimensional FDTD gives coupling efficiency and bandwidth.
Stage / 02-03
Handles modulator, photodetector and thermal analysis. CHARGE and HEAT give carrier transport and heater efficiency.
Stage / 04-05
Handles verification of fiber coupling. Physical optics propagation evaluates coupling efficiency with assembly tolerances included.
Stage / 03
Handles confirmation at circuit level. Extracted results are reduced to compact models and performance is evaluated as a circuit.
Stage / 06
Foundry and manufacturing
Once the design is settled, you move to prototyping on a silicon photonics platform. Whether a multi-project wafer (MPW) or a dedicated run suits better depends on circuit scale, the quantity you need and the process conditions. Before handover, confirm that the layout you output matches the design rules of the target process.
Which processes and prototyping routes are available is judged case by case from the target platform and specification.
Related technical information
Tell us where the design stands, whether the process conditions are known, whether the problem is passive or active, and what assembly you have planned, and we will propose a way forward.