OpenLight and Tower Semiconductor have expanded the PH18DA photonics ecosystem with the availability of OpenLight's photonic Process Design Kit (PDK) for Tower's PH18DA indium phosphide (InP)-on-silicon platform within Cadence's electronic design automation (EDA) tools.
Developed through collaboration between the three companies, the PDK enables designers to develop advanced photonic integrated circuits (PICs) using a widely adopted IC design environment, helping accelerate development from design through to production.
The PH18DA ecosystem combines OpenLight's photonics IP, Tower Semiconductor's manufacturing expertise and Cadence's EDA platform, bringing photonic IC design closer to established electronic IC workflows.
Designs created with the PDK can be fabricated on Tower's PH18DA InP-on-silicon platform, which supports the monolithic integration of active photonic devices including lasers, modulators and optical amplifiers within a single photonic integrated circuit.
The platform targets applications such as optical interconnects, AI infrastructure and sensing.
"By making our PDK available on Cadence tools, we enable customers to design photonic integrated circuits within the same environment they rely on for advanced IC development," said Dr Adam Carter, CEO of OpenLight. "This integration simplifies adoption and strengthens the path from design to production on the PH18DA platform."
Tower Semiconductor said the enhanced design ecosystem supports the development of 400G and 1.6T laser-integrated photonic integrated circuits while enabling co-optimised photonic and electronic IC designs for improved performance, power efficiency and scalability in next-generation near-packaged and co-packaged optics solutions.
