OpenLight debuts PIC design PDK

Technologies and Products

OpenLight has announced the general availability of its Process Design Kit (PDK) which is ready to be used with the Synopsys photonic IC design solution, and includes indium phosphide active optical elements on-chip that can be directly used by Synopsys OptoCompiler™ and simulated with the Synopsys OptSim™ photonic simulator, meaning customers can create PICs with optical amplifiers, on-chip lasers, and high-speed, low-loss modulators tailored to their design requirements.

Tohe company says the PDK will streamline the end-to-end design of PICs and meet future demands of applications including datacom, telecom, LiDAR, healthcare, HPC, AI, and optical computing,

Customers can access an extensive library of tested and proven photonic components to enhance first-time PIC success and deliver more reliable design and fabrication. The technology has passed qualification and reliability tests on Tower Semiconductor’s Silicon Photonics production flow (PH18DA).

“We strongly believe in the ability of OpenLight’s technology implemented in Tower’s foundry platform to push the envelope and enable the next generation of photonic IC products,” said Dr. Marco Racanelli, senior vice president and general manager of Tower Semiconductor’s Analog Business Unit. “With PDKs now available to the world, mutual customers can benefit from access to this advanced technology through an open foundry model. Results of PICs fabricated to date are impressive and the PDK announced here will speed up further PIC innovation from the industry as designers confidently develop and bring to market new products faster with on-chip lasers and optical amplifiers.”

“The combination of Synopsys’ industry-leading photonic IC design solution and OpenLight’s integrated laser technology in one cohesive platform empowers teams to design real-world PICs in a way that has never been done before,” said Aveek Sarkar, vice president of Engineering at Synopsys. “We look forward to supporting mutual customers together with Tower and OpenLight to accelerate adoption of silicon photonics with integrated lasers.”

“Until now, there has never been an open silicon photonics platform with active on-chip optical elements,” said Dr. Thomas Mader, chief operating officer at OpenLight. “We are at the vanguard of discovering the extent to which integrated lasers can reduce barriers to entry and transform the way teams design PICs for a large variety of applications. With the general release of the PDK, OpenLight is also reducing barriers to entry on the design side, enabling customers to quickly design PICs and get to market and production faster. This is just the beginning, and we expect to see continued scale, speed, and power advancements from our platform.”

OpenLight was launched as an independent company in June 2022, introducing the world’s first open silicon photonics platform with integrated lasers. The company is already seeing success among customers with its first 400G and 800G reference designs with integrated lasers made available this summer.

For more information, visit www.openlightphotonics.com