VPIphotonics, LiGenTec and VLC streamline design process for SiN PICs

Simulation software provider VPIphotonics GmbH of Berlin, Germany says that designers using the All-Nitride (AN) technology of LiGenTec SA of Lausanne, Switzerland (which provides manufacturing foundry services in silicon nitride) can now benefit from a workflow that starts from a graphical photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design and system simulation environment, which seamlessly couples to layout design tools for scripted layout design and DRC capabilities. The new workflow is based on LiGenTec- and VLC Photonics-verified reference designs with the simulation software by VPIphotonics using verified measurements of fabricated chips.

This workflow is enabled by the new VPItoolkit PDK LIGENTEC – a pluggable toolkit extension to VPIcomponentMaker Photonic Circuits by adding the support of the 800nm silicon nitride process AN800 offered by LiGenTec for dedicated shuttle runs and multi-project wafer (MPW) runs.

With the mode fully confined in the waveguide, the thick silicon nitride waveguides supported by the AN800 process with 800nm LPCVD silicon nitride offer very tight bending radius (< 0.005dB for 10 turns), very low coupling losses (< 1.5dB/facet), very low propagation losses (< 0.1dB/cm) and very high power handling (up to 10W tested).

VPIcomponentMaker Photonic Circuits is a simulation and design environment for large-scale PICs that offers a large mix of general-purpose photonic, electrical and optoelectronic device models, together with circuit optimization and yield analysis capabilities. The library extension VPItoolkit PDK LIGENTEC adds foundry-certified simulation compact models for the standard building blocks supported by the AN800 process and enables a layout-aware schematic-driven PIC design workflow, including chip layout optimization according to its required optical functionality. Importantly, it allows designers to construct their own hierarchical and custom building blocks, effectively expanding the foundry PDK to fit individual needs. The layout for the designed PICs can be automatically exported to either IPKISS by Luceda Photonics or OptoDesigner by Synopsys for DRC verification and GDS mask generation.

The mature library of photonic building blocks, available at the process design kit (PDK), has been developed by LiGenTec and VLC Photonics over several iterations to obtain mature devices with repeatable performance. The capability of embedding these blocks into the VPIphotonics software framework enables the simulation and modeling of complex PICs with a high degree of reliability, it is claimed.

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LiGenTec and VLC Photonics offer silicon nitride photonic integration circuit foundry

Tags: PIC

Visit: www.vlcphotonics.com/mpw

Visit: www.ligentec.com

Visit: www.VPIphotonics.com