VPItoolkit PDK SMART is a pluggable toolkit which extends VPIcomponentMaker Photonic Circuits by adding the support of the InP photonics Process Design Kit (PDK) for the Multi Project Wafer runs offered by SMART Photonics.

It enables the rapid design of Indium Phosphide monolithically integrated passive and active photonic circuits for their subsequent fabrication at the SMART Photonics foundry.

VPItoolkit PDK SMART supports export of layout for designed circuits to PhoeniX OptoDesigner by Synopsys, IPKISS by Luceda Photonics and Nazca Design. All of these layout design tools can also be used for a seamless GDS mask generation.

The PIC design flow is demonstrated by simulating a widely tunable laser source, based on a design idea published in [1]. All the waveguide lengths are important here – not only inside each MZI, but also the total length of the whole ring laser cavity. After designing MZIs with proper free spectral ranges (FSRs), matched with the FSR of the whole circuit, and applying estimated voltages to all the phase modulators, one can obtain results as shown below: single-mode lasing at almost any desired wavelength (side-lobe lines are due to not perfectly chosen voltages).

[1] S. Latkowski et al., Novel Widely Tunable Monolithically Integrated Laser Source, IEEE Photonics Journal, vol. 7, No. 6, 1503709 (Dec 2015).

Automatically exported layout in OptoDesigner