Foundry-Ready End-to-End Photonic Active Device Design: A New Era with PhotonForge

28 Jan 2025 By Prashanta Kharel,   PhD

The world of integrated photonics is evolving rapidly, and with it comes the need for tools that can keep pace with increasingly complex design and simulation requirements. PhotonForge is at the forefront of this revolution, offering a next-generation photonic design automation platform that consolidates the entire Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) development workflow into a single, seamless environment.

PhotonForge empowers photonic designers by uniting design, optimization, simulation, and fabrication-ready layouts in a way that is efficient, scalable, and reliable. Let’s explore how PhotonForge is redefining photonic active device automation and enabling foundry-ready designs with ease.

A Unified Platform for PIC Design and Fabrication

PhotonForge addresses a major challenge in photonics: integrating diverse tools and workflows into a streamlined, end-to-end solution. By leveraging GPU-accelerated, multi-physics solvers and incorporating support for foundry Process Design Kits (PDKs), PhotonForge unifies:

  • Layout editor
  • Device-level simulation (optical, electrical)
  • Compact model generation
  • Circuit-level simulations
  • Signal integrity analysis

This comprehensive approach minimizes the risk of tape-out errors, accelerates time-to-market, and reduces development costs, accelerating photonic innovation.

Automated Photonic Integrated Circuit Development Process

Powering Photonic Simulations with GPU

One of PhotonForge’s standout features is its GPU-accelerated multi-physics capabilities. Flexcompute’s advanced multi-physics solvers, such as FDTD, MODE, RF, and CHARGE enable simulations up to 500 times faster than traditional methods. For photonic designers, this means drastically reduced iteration times and the ability to explore more design possibilities in less time.

“GPU-accelerated computing is the future of photonics,” said Prashanta Kharel, PhD, Technology Strategist at Flexcompute. “Our tools enable simulations that would take months to complete on CPUs to be finished in minutes, unlocking new possibilities for innovation.”

In a recent demonstration, PhotonForge showcased its ability to load a foundry PDK, perform RF and optical simulations, and conduct time-domain analyses, all while generating fabrication-ready layouts for an ultra-high-speed electro-optic modulator in thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN). This level of integration ensures that designs are both accurate and fabrication-aware, eliminating the costly surprises that can arise during manufacturing.

“We’re talking up to a 500x speed boost in component simulations. Without GPU acceleration, this would be impossible. The simulations would take months—not minutes. This unlocks entire new realms of possibility for innovation,” Lucas Heitzmann Gabrielli, PhotonForge Product Manager at Flexcompute said.

Optimize Photonic Integrated Circuit Components at Unprecedented Speeds

Foundry PDK Integration: The Key to Seamless Design-to-Fabrication

Support for foundry PDKs is a cornerstone of PhotonForge. These PDKs enable designers to create foundry-aware, tape-out-ready designs, bridging the gap between concept and production. By providing pre-validated building blocks and ensuring compliance with manufacturing constraints, PhotonForge helps designers avoid errors and streamline the path to fabrication.

Optical and Electrical simulations from unified interface

The majority of PICs used for real-world applications are active devices where electrical signals are used to generate, manipulate, and also detect optical signals. In PhotonForge, the same simulation setup can be used to run accurate optical and radio-frequency (RF) simulations to design active devices such as high-speed modulators. Users no longer have to jump between tools and deal with fragmented workflow for active device design.

End-to-End Circuit Simulations

PhotonForge doesn’t stop at individual device simulations; it extends its capabilities to circuit-level analyses. With tools for both frequency and time-domain simulations, designers can model and optimize entire systems, encompassing both active and passive components. This holistic approach is critical for ensuring the performance and reliability of photonic circuits in real-world applications.

Get Started with PhotonForge

PhotonForge is transforming the way photonic devices and circuits are designed, simulated, and brought to market. With its unified platform, GPU-accelerated simulations, and foundry-ready design capabilities, PhotonForge empowers designers to tackle the most complex challenges in integrated photonics and is paving the way for the next generation of photonic innovation. Learn more about PhotonForge, or get started using the installation instructions.