Photonic sensors and transceivers are a vital component of data security, data communication, and also environmental detection due to cost, scalability, performance, and energy efficiency.

Fremont, CA: A combined integrated photonics technology and electrical systems are an essential part of 5G, autonomous vehicles and the internet of things (IoT). An everyday example is a fibre optic connector utilized in a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceivers for datacenter and 5G applications. This communication device leverages light to transfer data over optical fibres between the electronic systems. The engineers need simulation tools to model this and other integrated photonic systems, to ensure that the photonic emitters/detectors are compatible, data transmission is optimized for speed, accuracy and energy efficiency, and the operation is robust over a range of environmental conditions. They can then integrate these models to validate, optimize and design the complete system.

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A Theoretical Integrated Photonics Workflow for Lidar Systems Design

The user interface (UI) offers an integrated design environment (IDE) that can identify couple models that include optical, electrical, emissive, thermal, and electromagnetic simulations. This multiphysics mindset fits the requirements of those working on integrated photonics for 5G, autonomous vehicles and also IoT applications.

For example, autonomous vehicles require low-cost lidar system sensors inside their environmental detection systems. Leveraging integrated photonic simulations, engineers will be able to assess the performance of the emitting layer, and also the nanoscale integrated phased array used to form the beam. Propagation of the laser beam and its environment interaction is then modeled using macroscopic optical simulation technology. Then, engineers can then use Lumerical technology to model how the integrated sensor receives the laser signal calculated from the macroscopic optical simulation.

Currently, when simulating lidar systems, the users need to acquire integrated photonic information from measurements or vendors. By combining these simulation technologies, engineers will be able to create high-fidelity simulations that allow them to optimize source and detector designs.

To help the engineers simulate electronic systems and their interaction with photonic circuits, Lumerical has partnerships with various foundries to provide customers with high-quality photonic process design kits (PDKs). Therefore, by integrating their portfolio with the platform, engineers can simulate and characterize a full electro-optical communication or sensing system.