The Synopsys Software Environment to Design and Simulate Photonic Integrated Circuits: A Case Study for 400G Transmission

To afford the dramatic intra- and inter-datacenter traffic growth envisioned for the decade, the IEEE P802.3bs Task Force is targeting the standardization of 200 Gb/s and 400 Gb/s Ethernet. Transceivers adopting this standard will need to substantially reduce cost and power consumption with respect to similar equipment that are currently the state-of-the-art for long-haul networks. The most promising solution for such a challenging objective is offered by integrated photonics, a state-of-the-art technology capable of providing high-speed components and large-scale circuits with high-volume, high-yield, and low-cost manufacturing.Synopsys proposes an integrated software (SW) environment capable of assisting with virtual prototyping and testing of the circuit before proceeding with the physical implementation. It is the integration of the OptSim Circuit tool for schematic-driven photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design, with the PhoeniX OptoDesigner photonic layout tool, and the RSoft Photonic Component Design Suite, thus providing a single modeling solution at the circuit, layout, and device levels of abstraction. In this work, we first present this integrated SW environment, focusing on its potential and usability. Then, we use the APSUNY Silicon Photonics Integrated Circuit Process Design Kit (PDK) library sponsored by AIM Photonics to model a PM-16QAM transceiver with a 400G transmission data rate.