Customers can now design advanced photonic integrated circuits using a newly integrated ecosystem from OpenLight, Tower Semiconductor, and Cadence. OpenLight’s Process Design Kit is available on Cadence’s electronic design automation tools, specifically for Tower Semiconductor’s PH18DA indium phosphide-on-silicon photonics platform.
This collaboration streamlines the development of PICs, bringing photonics design closer to standard IC workflows; as OpenLight CEO Dr. Adam Carter states, “By making our PDK available on Cadence tools, we enable customers to design photonic integrated circuits within the same environment they rely on for advanced IC development.” The PH18DA platform supports active photonic components for applications including optical interconnects and AI infrastructure.
OpenLight’s PDK Integrates with Cadence Tools for PH18DA Platform
The newly accessible PDK enables customers to design advanced PICs using a familiar IC design environment, accelerating development towards manufacturing readiness. Designs utilizing the PDK can be fabricated on Tower’s PH18DA platform, which integrates active photonic components like lasers, modulators, and amplifiers onto a single chip. This collaboration between OpenLight, Tower Semiconductor, and Cadence combines photonics intellectual property, manufacturing capabilities, and EDA tools, establishing a more efficient path from initial design to final production. Adam Carter is the CEO at OpenLight.
Tower Semiconductor emphasizes the advancement of design capabilities through this integration, offering customers a streamlined approach to developing 400G and 1.6T laser-integrated PICs. “In collaboration with Cadence and OpenLight, we are advancing design capabilities on the PH18DA platform through a new capability that integrates expertise across technology, IP, and EDA,” explained Dr. Samir Chaudhry, vice president of customer design enablement and reliability at Tower Semiconductor.
Gilles Lamant, distinguished engineer at Cadence, added that “Adding the OpenLight PDK for the PH18DA platform manufactured by Tower Semiconductor to the portfolio of photonics processes supported by the Cadence Photonics ecosystem is a key milestone because it marks the introduction of integrated active devices for high-performance, co-optimized electro-optical designs.”
Adding the OpenLight PDK PH18DA manufactured by Tower Semiconductor to the rich portfolio of photonics processes supported by the Cadence Photonics ecosystem is a key milestone because it marks the introduction of integrated active devices for high-performance, co-optimized electro-optical designs.
Gilles Lamant, distinguished engineer, Cadence
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