Only Minutes Instead of Weeks

Mentor has announced a new development software for photonic ICs. Using it, developers should be able to get to the production-ready design much faster than before: in minutes instead of weeks.

Photonic ICs are regarded as a way out of the impending data congestion. They can be used to construct high-speed networks in order to provide an appropriate infrastructure for the continuously increasing data traffic. However, a photonic IC is much more complex to develop than a purely electrical circuit.

Mentor has now announced the €»Photonic Compiler€«, a development software that should make it much easier to design photonic circuits. Electrical and optical components are placed via a Python script, the compiler then automatically wires or connects the components and performs a test run of the wiring. Previously, the optical parts of a circuit had to be connected manually, which can take up to several weeks. According to Mentor, the time is reduced to a few minutes through automation.

Door Opener for Photonic ICs

The developer can also modify circuit designs and select the most suitable one. With a manual connection, this step would be too time-consuming. According to the developer of the software, M. Ashkan Seyedi, Ph.D. and Senior Research Scientist at Hewlett Packard Labs, this represents a major hurdle for the industry-wide introduction of photonic circuits.

The integration of optical elements into electrical circuits makes it possible to communicate at the speed of light within high-speed networks and high-performance computing (HPC) systems. A simplified circuit design also accelerates the development of LiDAR technology, which is an essential prerequisite for the widespread use of autonomous vehicles.