Photonics: Riding the Waves

Coming up on January 11th is our annual photonics event. This year it is called CadenceCONNECT: Photonics - Riding the Waves Along the Spectrum. As usual, the event will take place in the building 10 auditorium (just follow the event signs). But the event is hybrid and will also be virtual. As always, Gilles Lamant, Cadence Distinguished Engineer, is the host.

It's not called "riding the waves" because we are in California, where surfing is a thing (cue The Beach Boys' Surfin' USA). The theme of the event will be applications that don't use a single frequency or which push out into the O and C bands.

Or, as Gilles puts it:

The recent industry progress in photonics can be, in part, attributed to its re-use of the silicon (CMOS) ecosystem. However, strict reliance on silicon-based waveguides limits the available spectral windows to selected applications. What about applications needing a broader set of wavelengths? Can we expand beyond the traditional domain of silicon photonics? Learn how photonics can successfully cover other wavelengths along the spectrum from manufacturing (materials) to design (active blocks, waveguides, modulators, etc.).

Keynote

The keynote will be given by Cheryl Sorace-Agaskar of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. It is titled Integrated Photonics Beyond 1550 nm: MWIR to UV. You probably know that UV is ultraviolet. But you might not know that MWIR stands for middle-wavelength infrared. I talked to her to get a bit more color.

She told me that her talk was going to be in two parts. First, what has been done for integrated photonics outside of the telecommunication bands at 1550nm and 1310nm. Those bands are used for telecommunication and were picked due to low loss over long distance. Then other applications piggybacked on that infrastructure. But there are people who need other frequencies for things like biophotonics (using light to sense or manipulate biological systems).

The second part would be about work at Lincoln Labs on trapped ion based quantum computing, using the valence electrons of an atom to manipulate quantum information. Input and output from the quantum system is all done optically.

Here's her own abstract:

As photonic integrated circuits (PICs) mature, they are finding their way into an increasing number of complex and compact optical systems beyond traditional telecom and datacom applications. These include applications in lidar, biophotonics, chemical detection, microwave photonics, and quantum sensing/computing. Many of these applications involve wavelengths outside the traditional telecom/datacom bands, which have historically been the focus of most R&D investment. Fortunately, research in such areas, particularly in the ultraviolet (UV), visible, and mid-wave infrared (MWIR) wavelength regions, is increasing and available technology is maturing rapidly. This talk will provide an overview of relevant applications and then describe the performance requirements, recent component and fabrication advancements, including those happening at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and desired architectures for integrated photonics across the wavelength spectrum.

Rest of the Day

After a short break following the keynote, the rest of the day consists of two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon (with a break). The day wraps up with a networking reception in the lobby.

Splitting Light and Applications

10:00 am - 10:45 am Design of AWG-Spectrometer for OCT Applications by Dana Seyringer, Professor, FH Vorarlberg University, Austria

10:45 am - 11:30 am High-Density-Laser Spectrophotometer Chips for Wearable Health Monitoring by Aaron Zilkie, Co-founder and CTO, Rockley Photonics

11:30 am - 12:15 pm Device Modeling and Simulation Support for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing by Nikola Nedovic, Senior Research Scientist, NVIDIA

Lunch

Light Generation and Light Source Modeling

1:15 pm - 2:00 pm Extending the Wavelength Range of Lasers on Silicon by Tin Komljenovic, CEO and Co-founder, Nexus Photonics

2:00 pm - 2:45 pm Nonlinear Light Generation in Integrated Photonics from the Visible to Near-Infrared by Kartik Srinivasan, Project Leader, Photonics & Plasmonics Group, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Break

3:00 pm - 3:45 pm Multi-wavelength Optical Sources and Emerging Standards for High Data Rate Optical I/O by Matt Sysak, Editor, CW-WDM MSA and VP, Laser Engineering at Ayar Labs

3:45 pm - 4:30 pm Design and Simulation of Lasers for Photonic Integrated Circuits by James Pond, Distinguished Engineer, Ansys/Lumerical

Reception

That takes us to 4:30 pm, when Gilles will wrap up. That will be followed by a networking reception in the building 10 lobby.

Workshop

The following day, January 12th, there will be a hands-on workshop for designers who want to experience a proven electronic and photonic design flow firsthand. The workshop is in-person only.

You’ll gain valuable insight on:  

• Full system co-simulation of a  four-channel WDM using Lumerical INTERCONNECT/Cadence Spectre co-simulation
• Basics of layout primitive (ring) design with Cadence Virtuoso CurvyCore technology 
• Model characterization and generation with Lumerical CML Compiler 
• Schematic-driven layout to implement the RX side of your design in the Virtuoso environment

Don't forget to bring your own laptop, and you will be able to access the tools through a VNC client while Cadence and Lumerical experts in the room guide you through the steps.

Learn More

Full details are on the event page, including a link for registration.

Fadeout Music

Yes, it has to be Surfin' USA:

Trivia facts of the day: the song was written by Brian Wilson and is a re-written version of Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen. Brian Wilson has never gone surfing!

 

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