Photonic Integrated Circuit Design in a Foundry+Fabless Ecosystem

A foundry-based photonic ecosystem is expected to become necessary with increasing demand and adoption of photonics for commercial products. To make foundry-enabled photonics a real success, the photonic circuit design flow should adopt known concepts from analog and mixed signal electronics. Based on the similarities and differences between the existing photonic and the standardized electronics design flow, we project the needs and evolution of the photonic design flow, such as schematic driven design, accurate behavioral models, and yield prediction in the presence of fabrication variability.