Computer aided design for free space optical interconnected systems

Chatoyant is a software tool developed to meet the needs of mixed technology optoelectronic systems designers. We introduce component models and analysis techniques that enable our tool to support free-space optoelectronic interconnect system design. Our goal is to show how we can model a variety of systems with different components and component values. This allows the system designer to perform trade-offs by varying such parameters as VCSEL efficiency and thresholds, optical system design, detector technology and receiver circuit design. Further, by performing Monte Carlo simulations with parameter ranges, the designer can determine critical parameter tolerances and design more robust systems.