What’s Included?

• An overhaul to GUI greatly improves display of designed PICs including labels to keep track of sprawling designs.
• The new arc section simulates bend modes and more clearly displays rings for use in tunable lasers and larger circuits.

What can PICWave do?

A new batch of standard examples shows PICWave’s more recent advancements:

• The LiDAR industry uses high power tapering lasers shown in our new example + we show PICWave’s self heating model is pivotal for understanding high power performance.
• The ease of use combining FIMMPROP’s passive simulations with PICWave is shown with new ring resonator example + see Chi 3 non-linearity is used to create a bi-stable ring resonator.

• The changing 2D cross section of a hybrid laser/ SOA is shown in a new example

   

Further upgrades

• Two-terminal Current and Voltage Drives (i.e. it’s now possible to connect these between two contact/nodes rather than always having an implicit ground connection at one terminal)
• Improvements to the built-in Y-junction, Directional Coupler and MZI models: can now define port modes using a physical waveguide cross-section, and define reflection/loss coefficients for the Y-junction and Directional Coupler

Photon Design, a global leader in photonic simulation CAD software, has updated its world-leading, PICWave, photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design and simulation tool with anintuitive new graphic user interface (GUI) and an enhanced feature set. PICWave seamlesslyintegrates with Photon Design’s active component simulators, such as HAROLD, and passive component simulators, such as FIMMPROP, to give powerful PIC design, central to the engineer’s design flow, with flexible 3D, time-evolving, simulations. Active components which are integrated include SOAs, laser diodes, hybrid silicon lasers, DFBs, tuneable lasers and ring lasers. In addition, rigorous models of gratings, common PIC components like directional couplers, and optimised lossless bends can all be imported. 

Dr. Dominic Gallagher, CEO of Photon Design, said, “PICWave now features a more intuitiveGUI, improving its look and feel; a bend simulation tool; and a notes section for tracking changes and annotating designs. It is widely used in high-power, tapered laser applications, such as LiDAR, where it can simulate the thermal rollover effects as laser output power
increases. It also models other physical effects such as carrier diffusion, current spreading, and hole burning for complex devices such as hybrid silicon lasers. Its Wide-Band Gain Fitting algorithm ensures accurate gain results across a broad range of wavelengths. 

“PICWave is ideally suited to analyzing the interaction of multiple optical components within larger circuits, enabling the simulation of optical propagation in complex, extended devices, sometimes metres in length. This far exceeds the capabilities of traditional FDTD or FEM Maxwell solvers. The latest features enhance both the performance and productivity of our
simulations, further consolidating Photon Design’s reputation as a leader in laser and PIC design and simulation.”