PICWave

PICWave Features

Circuit simulator

• Efficient optical circuit simulator featuring a Time-Domain Travelling Wave (TDTW) optical model

• Circuits may contain both passive and active components, and have a near-arbitrary topology. 

• Models both planar waveguide and single mode fibre geometries for waveguide cross-sections - integrated high performance fully vectorial 2D+z Finite Difference mode-solver, and Single Mode Fibre Solver.

• Supports multiple transverse modes, e.g. for polarisation diversity studies.

• Wide variety of instruments - measuring optical power, wavelength, current, carrier density, threshold and more.

• Wide variety of analysis tools - plotting optical and power spectra, eye diagrams, RIN spectra, dispersion spectra, LI curve fitting etc.

• Signal editor for defining optical and electrical input signals: optical power and wavelength, or alternatively, complex optical amplitude; and electrical current or voltage. An optical amplitude signal can be completely arbitrary and imported from file (e.g. generated by MATLAB). 

• Material database system

• Extensive command-line interface, support for scripting with Python and MATLAB 

• Extensive support of multi-core and multi-CPU computers to speed up your simulations

Passive models

• Features a number of built-in passive models for waveguides, tapers, directional couplers, Y-junctions and more. 

• Import passive models from FIMMPROP or other rigorous 2D/3D electromagnetic simulator (wavelength dependent scattering matrix), e.g. importing of a ring coupler model from FIMMPROP for the simulation of a large ring resonator.

• Models gratings with arbitrary apodisation and chirp; integrated grating solver - real and gain gratings

• χ⁽²⁾ (second-order susceptibility) non-linear model for the design and simulation of periodically-poled nonlinear sections e.g. periodically-poled lithium niobate - PPLN for second harmonic generation, phase sensitive amplification and wavelength conversion etc.
  

Active models

• Advanced active model (option) for simulating: semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) and laser diodes including DFB lasers, tuneable lasers, ring lasers and SOI hybrid laser structures; as well as amplitude/phase modulators and photodiodes.

• Modulator models: phase/amplitude modulators with user-defined effective phase index shift/absorption vs. bias for phenomenologically modelling current-injection and electro-optic modulators;
  electro-absorption (EAM) modulators with defined voltage-dependent gain modulation/frequency shift under reverse bias. 

• Import detailed heterostructure material models (gain or EAM) from Harold to take account of full drift-diffusion quantum well models (other sources supported too).

• Electrical components: inductors, capacitors, resistors, travelling wave electrodes, electrical nodes and electrical drives; construct electrical networks and connect these to active sections to model the electrical-optical interaction e.g. the effect of parasitics on laser operation, the electrical response of a photo-detector, or travelling-wave modulators etc 

Design flow

• Create design kits of standard building block components which your design team can then use and reuse to construct larger circuits; or import design kits for a third party industrial fab to design circuits for manufacture on their platform.

Click the links on the left for more Features information.