Accelerating PIC Design with Automated Workflow Using Electromagnetic Solvers

The increasing demand for high-performance photonic integrated circuits (PICs) has associated challenges such as high computational cost, tedious and time-consuming simulations, and high fabrication cost due to multiple iterations.

Newman will address these challenges with modelling tools that can accurately simulate and optimize photonic devices at super-fast speeds. With the aid of GPUs, 3D-FDTD simulations of the complex structures can now be achieved within minutes, thereby minimizing the computational resources.

The Python language-based automated workflow of these simulation solvers allows photonic design engineers to build their own set of compact model libraries. Also, the fabrication iterations can be drastically brought down by designing & optimizing PICs performance before fabrication with the aid of this simulation suite, providing high confidence in the first-pass success for advanced photonic systems.

About the presenter
Scott Newman, Ph.D., serves as the director of technical sales & applications at Optiwave, where he manages technical sales and distributor training across the company’s full software portfolio. Additionally, he serves as a research scientist and product lead specifically for the OptiFDTD, OptiBPM, and OptiMode product lines. His broader research interests include computational electromagnetics and periodic structures in photonics.

Newman earned his doctorate in electrical engineering from Carleton University in 2013, specializing in computational electromagnetics applied to photonic quasicrystals. Prior to his current role, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ottawa (2013–2017) developing computational models for stimulated Brillouin scattering. He also holds an M.A.Sc. in electrical engineering and a B.Eng. in engineering physics.