An Integrated CAD Environment for the Design and Simulation of Photonic Integrated Circuits

aCADian Inc. proposes to develop a user friendly, extensible, integrated CAD environment for the design and simulation of Photonic Integrated Circuits. It will provide a high-productivity photonic layout capability, seamless integration with lightwave simulation packages. The software will be designed from the ground up to deal with the specifics of integrated optical circuits. It will incorporate specialized, user-friendly tools to view, create, arrange and edit complex waveguide structures. The user will be able to interactively launch simulations which will provide the necessary feedback and guidelines to refine his design. Simulations will be launched directly from written extensions and external tools. The proposed software will fill a gap in the photonic circuit design process, which currently lacks CAD tools of the same quality and efficiency as is common place in integrated electronics. Moreover, it will allow designer to increase the complexity and capability of their circuits, and decease the turnaround time needed for phontonic integrated circuit development.