July 01st 2021 SMART Photonics launches PDK Gen 2

Recently SMART Photonics launched its new PDK*. Our next generation platform (Gen 2) enables manufacturing of high-speed application products.
With the introduction of a Semi-Insulating Substrate our platform can now offer both EAM modulators and MZI modulators beyond 25 GBaud and is ready to further support the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth.

Furthermore, an improved electrical isolation between the components on the chip has been achieved, enabling smarter ways to build Photonic Integrated Circuits and allowing the integration of a large number of lasers, amplifiers and passive components in a single circuit.

Next to this, the platform demonstrates the capability to deliver widely tuneable lasers covering up to 75 nm and with narrow linewidths in the order of 100 kHz.

“The release of our Gen2 platform supports our ambition to become the leading InP foundry and development partner for our customers’’, says Luc Augustin, CTO SMART Photonics.
“The newly released PDK offers more mature manufacturing data, including fabrication tolerances, allowing to include yield considerations, thus improving the design cycle and giving customers a far quicker turnaround on the desired design outcome.”

The capabilities now added are an important steppingstone towards higher-performance modulators and lasers for coherent applications, as well as towards a fully flexible integration platform for O-band. All targeted to be released in 2022.

Webinar
Click here to watch the webinar in which Luc Augustin (CTO), Stefanos Andreou (R&D Engineer) and Pau Castera (Mask Engineer) elaborate on the next generation PDK from SMART Photonics.

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SMART PHOTONICS PROCESS DESIGN KIT (PDK)

The SMART Photonics PDK comprises of a comprehensive building block library, build up out of active and passive devices for InP based photonic integration. The SMART Photonics PDK is available for various software partners each with their own expertise in designing and simulating photonic ICs. Each building block of the PDK is regularly tested and calibrated from measurements to ensure correct optical and electrical performance at a circuit simulation level. The PDK enforces users to obey certain predefined design rules set by the fab, thereby removing the necessity for the user to gain in-depth knowledge and expertise required to fabricate a functional device. Circuit designs can be exported to a layout tool. In our ongoing collaboration with our software partners we are working towards standardizing this interface. This opens up the possibility to exchange photonic circuit designs between different software packages. Check our handout about the Process Design Kit.