Short Courses

In this course, we start hands-on with circuit design in silicon photonics. As fabrication technology is steadily improving, it becomes possible to implement more complex functionality as a circuit. Circuits are an abstraction where the function is defined as a connected network of functional components, with signals travelling between them. In this course, we learn how to compose hierarchical circuits from libraries of basic building blocks, use parametric circuit models and simulation in both frequency domain and time domain, and eventually generate a circuit layout. We look into the effects of variability and imperfections on circuit performance using Monte-Carlo simulations, and learn how to design wavelength filter circuits based on Mach-Zehnder interferometers and arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG). 

During the four hours of the course, we start with the basic concepts of silicon photonics and learn about the fundamentals of design. You will also get familiar with the  hands-on on-line learning environment based on Jupyter Python notebooks powered by Luceda Photonics’s IPKISS design tools. With these tools you can design and simulate different photonic circuits as if you would plan to fabricate them. You can use this environment during the course session and continue to use it freely for a few months after the conference. 

Through this course, the participants will become familiar with the overall design flow, and acquire an awareness of important do’s and don’t’s in photonic circuit design, especially in a high-contrast system such as silicon photonics. They will become familiar with circuit layout and simulation (time domain and wavelength domain) and the basics of integrated optical filter design. 

The focus of this course is on circuit design. If you have a deeper interest in how to design the individual building blocks, optimizing the individual geometries and simulating the electromagnetic fields, then we recommend the other short course SC432 (Hands on: Silicon Photonics Design - Components). Participation in both SC432 and SC454 is possible but neither course is a prerequisite for the other.

*A laptop or tablet is required to particpate in the course* 

• Get a ‘big picture overview’ of Silicon Photonics
• Understand the difference between component design and circuit design
• Understand the typical photonic circuit design flow, from schematic capture to design rule checking
• Get hands-on experience designing and simulating small circuits 
• Explore photonic filter circuits such as Mach-Zehnder interferometers, ring resonators and arrayed waveguide gratings.
• Model how fabrication variation can adversely affect the behavior of a circuit (and learn some tricks to compensate)

The course is aimed at researchers and engineers who are starting in integrated photonics, or want to scale up from component design to a more circuit-like methodologies. Familiarity with basic concepts of photonic integrated circuits (waveguides, directional couplers, …) is required.

Wim Bogaerts is professor in Silicon Photonics at Ghent University and IMEC, Belgium. He pioneered wafer-scale fabrication of silicon photonics, and his current research focuses on the challenges for large-scale photonic circuits, including design challenges such as variability. He co-founded Luceda Photonics in 2014 to market the design tools developed at Ghent University and IMEC. Today, he is again a full-time academic researcher, and a grant holder of the European Research Council (ERC).