CE-ECOM-6000 - Photonic Integrated Circuits 1: Fabless Design within the AIM Photonics Foundry

Course Description

Fabless photonics is the new paradigm for designing high-fidelity Photonics Integrated Circuits (PICs). PIC circuits create, guide, sort, and read information as signals of light, routed through a dizzying maze of hundreds of devices packed in an area about a millimeter on its side. In this course, you’ll be introduced to PIC design using a standardized Process Design Kit (PDK) library as your builders’ rulebook, and Electronic Photonic Design Automation (EPDA) software as your architecture tools.

This course is structured around the design of a basic transceiver. You’ll start with an overview of fabless PIC design followed by a review of passive photonic devices (waveguides, bends, splitters/combiners, interferometers). You’ll then be walked through the process of designing the transceiver chip with a focus on two active devices (electro-optic modulator, photodetector). This course highlights device compact models as the PDK methodology for flexible simulation and layout of PIC chip designs, and rigorously trains you in EPDA industry-standard software.

Learner Outcomes

Completion of this course demonstrates your professional engineer-level design aptitude in fabless integrated photonics, for leading edge industrial applications poised to transform modern manufacturing and the global economy in the next two decades. Before taking this course, we recommend that you:

• Have a background in silicon photonics, fiber optics, or III-V semiconductors.
• Are proficient in linear algebra and calculus

Professional Objectives

• Interpret Design Guides
  Learn to interpret and follow design guides.
• Leverage Hierarchical Design
  Understand how hierarchical design works and leverage your skills while designing.
• Design Rule Check (DRC)
  Ensure that design can be manufactured through design rule checking.