Photon Design highlights fast PIC simulation
FIMMPROP demo shows rapid taper optimisation using EME without cloud computing.
Photon Design has demonstrated the computational speed of its EigenMode Expansion (EME)-based simulation tools, highlighting their potential to accelerate photonic device design and optimisation.
At SPIE Photonics West, the company showcased its FIMMPROP Maxwell Solver, using it to design an ultra-compact adiabatic taper in minutes on a standard PC.
The example reduced taper length from 17 μm to 6 μm while maintaining performance, enabling more efficient use of wafer space.
According to Photon Design, the speed advantage comes from its EME computational engine, which delivers results comparable in accuracy to Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) methods but with significantly reduced processing time.
This enables iterative design workflows, including the use of global and local optimisation techniques to evaluate thousands of design variations rapidly.
Alex Edwards, Scientific Advisor at the company, said the approach allows engineers to fine-tune parameters such as taper shape, length, and optical performance without repeated full simulations.
He added that, unlike FDTD, EME performance is not strongly affected by device length, making it particularly suited to modelling extended photonic structures.
The demonstration also highlighted the ability to balance performance improvements with fabrication constraints such as sidewall roughness, which can introduce optical loss.
By optimising these trade-offs, the tool aims to support more efficient and manufacturable photonic designs.
The company said the technology is now being evaluated by customers across a range of applications, as demand grows for faster and more efficient design workflows in photonic integrated circuits
