Abstract
Silicon photonics is nothing new. It has been around for decades, but in recent years, it has gained traction as electronic design challenges increase drastically with their atomic-level limitations. Silicon photonics has made significant advancements during this period, but there are many obstacles without an acceptable level of comfort as seen by the lack of semiconductor community involvement. Apart from a series of technological barriers, such as extreme fabrication sensitivity, inefficient light generation on-chip, etc., there are also certain design challenges. In this chapter, we will discuss the challenges and the opportunities in photonic integrated circuit design software tools, examine existing design flows for photonics design and how these fit different design styles, and review the activities in collaboration and standardization efforts to improve design flows.
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Heins, M. et al. (2016). Design Flow Automation for Silicon Photonics: Challenges, Collaboration, and Standardization. In: Pavesi, L., Lockwood, D. (eds) Silicon Photonics III. Topics in Applied Physics, vol 122. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10503-6_4
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