generic manufacturing
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table fabrication and integration technologies decrease the cost price and development time of photonic integrated components without sustaining a loss on the performance of the photonic component. Instead of optimising the fabrication technology for every single application, the product design is adapted to the capabilities of available, mature, high performance fabrication processes. To create stable processes right tools are needed, such as software for layout, simulation and fabrication execution and methods such as in-line and off-line quality testing. Next step is to collect the information from the fabrication processes and translate this into standard building blocks for the photonic integrated circuit, given a particular fabrication process flow.
Integrated Product Creation Process
Underpinning the whole “generic manufacturing” concept is the information flow between different abstraction levels and the different stages of product and process development. When system engineers, design engineers and process engineers work together to design both the product and, when required, fabrication processes, it is known as the integrated product creation process (iPCP figure 1). The designer’s consideration of design for manufacturability, cost, reliability and maintainability is the starting point for an integrated product development.
The iPCP concept has been implemented by developing dedicated Design Kits for various fabrication technologies, amongst others silicon photonics. PhoeniX Design Kits contain all relevant information for designers in order to create a photonic integrated device or circuit within the capabilities of the fabrication processes. Users benefit from this by having immediate access to mature and proven building blocks, ensuring functional devices. Furthermore, recurring costs are avoided by streamlining the discussions amongst designers and engineers at the foundry. The knowledge of the product creation process will be utilised into the Design Kits through standard design software, which assists to avoid that designers repeatedly build libraries for same technologies. The main content of these Design Kits
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are the building blocks containing geometrical information, parameters, boundaries, design rules, IP-rights, simulation settings, mask information, version, etc. By reusing validated definitions for multiple applications and designs, the quality of the information used by the designers increases considerably.
Photonics Design Automation In the electronics industry, the use of ‘Electronics Design Automation’ (EDA) is wide-spread. A foundry offers an extensive set of building blocks (BBs), which a designer can use to create a complex device. The BBs and their combination are guaranteed to work as expected if the given design rules are respected. Software supports each step in the design process, from physical analysis to layout, and flags any design rule violation before the final design is shipped to the foundry. Furthermore, simulation tools are integrated in, or link directly into, the EDA environment and assist the designer in his work.
In the field of integrated photonics, such advanced design kits have not been available until recently. A number of European companies and institutions has worked together to set up a Photonics Design Automation (PDA) tool-set. Just like in EDA, photonic foundries define a number of building blocks, which are implemented in software tools ranging from mask layout through physical and circuit simulators. The circuit simulator is able to call
Figure 1: Integrated Product Creation Process
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