Integration of INTERCONNECT and Cadence with an emphasis on co-simulation of CMOS drivers and optical ring modulators

The idea of using light for transferring data has been developed rapidly since 1960s. Today, using light for short-distance communication, as an alternative for copper wires, is rapidly growing mostly because of its broadband communication characteristics. Optical communication systems consist of both electronic and photonic components. Designing such systems will benefit from an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to not only simulate both electrical and optical designs but also co-simulate electro-optical subsystem efficiently and accurately. In this project, an IDE will be developed to connect two cutting-edge software packages in these domains: Cadence tool in electronics with Lumerical tool (INTERCONNECT) in photonics. Software prototypes will be developed and efficient algorithms/methods will be investigated and implemented to make this integration efficient, accurate and easy to use for the electro-optical designers. Using this IDE, INTERCONNECT users not only don’t need to design using different tools and convert between different formats and data models but also they can exploit advanced functionalities provided by Cadence to post-process simulation results already generated by INTERCONNECT.

Faculty Supervisor:

Shahriar Mirabbasi

Student:

Ahmadreza Farsaei

Partner:

Lumerical Solutions Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of British Columbia