Partnership between CompoundTek, Mentor and Lumerical delivers silicon photonics PDK
CompoundTek confirms its partnership with leading Electronic Design Automation (EDA) vendor Mentor, a Siemens business, and leading photonic simulation software provider Lumerical to deliver CompoundTek’s SiPh Process Design Kit (PDK) across its global commercial customer base. Available immediately, the PDK’s predictive capabilities enable photonics designers to validate designs prior to manufacturing thus enabling reduction of the time from product design to market launches.
The photonics design automation solution by Lumerical and Mentor, combined with CompoundTek’s open SiPh manufacturing process platform, will accelerate SiPh adoption for applications ranging from datacom transceivers, bio-sensing, smart sensors, LiDAR, quantum computing and artificial intelligence, explains KS Ang, Chief Operating Officer, CompoundTek.
The PDK includes active and passive devices such as optical waveguide devices, fibre-to-waveguide couplers, high-speed waveguide Ge photo-detectors and high-speed modulators. SiPh designers can leverage these pre-developed blocks to design and verify their photonics products more quickly and efficiently before fabricating physical prototypes.
A complete design flow enabled by the PDK includes photonic simulation, schematic capture, custom layout, layout automation, and physical verification. Tools enabled include Lumerical INTERCONNECT, as well as Mentor’s L-Edit Photonics, LightSuite Photonic Compiler, and industry-leading Calibre platform physical verification tools.
