Computing with Light

Computing with Light
by Daniel Nenni on 12-27-2019 at 6:00 am

Evolution of programmable photonics

I recently wrote about this year’s Cadence Photonics Summit. As I mentioned in that post, it was a fascinating event with several companies providing useful and informative presentations. You can access some of the presentations on the event site. One presentation, given by Jose Capmany of iPronics, was especially interesting… Read More


CDNLive Boston Keynote Address Highlights Emergence of Silicon Photonics

CDNLive Boston Keynote Address Highlights Emergence of Silicon Photonics
by Mitch Heins on 09-27-2017 at 7:00 am

I had the pleasure of being able to attend the CDNLive event held in the Boston, MA area last month and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Cadence highlighted Silicon Photonics as one of its Keynote topics. MIT Professor Duane Boning gave an excellent overview of the current state of silicon photonics and why he believes it is time… Read More


Mentor & Phoenix Software Shed Light on Integrated Photonics Design Rule Checking

Mentor & Phoenix Software Shed Light on Integrated Photonics Design Rule Checking
by Mitch Heins on 07-10-2017 at 12:00 pm

Just prior to the opening of the 54[SUP]th[/SUP] Design Automation Conference, Mentor, a Siemens company, and PhoeniX Software issued a press release announcing a new integration between their tools to help designers of photonic ICs (PICs) to close the loop for manufacturing sign-off verification. This is a significant piece… Read More


Capture the Light with Integrated Photonics

Capture the Light with Integrated Photonics
by Mitch Heins on 07-03-2017 at 7:00 am


I wrote up a quick article in the weeks before the Design Automation Conference (DAC) letting readers know that Integrated Photonics were indeed coming to DAC again this year. As a follow up, I attended the DAC presentation, ‘Capture the Light. An Integrated Photonics Design Solution from Cadence, Lumerical and PhoeniX Software’,… Read More


Integrated Photonics Accelerates with Entrance of TSMC and TowerJazz Foundries

Integrated Photonics Accelerates with Entrance of TSMC and TowerJazz Foundries
by Mitch Heins on 04-05-2017 at 12:00 pm


I’m writing this from the Boston airport on my way home from four straight weeks of PIC (photonic integrated circuit) related travel. It’s been a grueling but very rewarding four weeks and the big take away from this month is that there are now many more signs in the market that integrated photonics is reaching a real tipping point.… Read More


Cadence Expands Integrated Photonics Beachhead

Cadence Expands Integrated Photonics Beachhead
by Mitch Heins on 03-30-2017 at 4:00 pm

In November of 2016, I made a bold statement that October 20, 2016 would stand as a watershed day in integrated photonics. The reason for this claim was that GLOBALFOUNDRIES proclaimed that integrated photonics was real and here to stay. The same week I wrote an article about Cadence Design Systems securing a photonic beachhead … Read More


Mentor’s Battle of the Photonic Bulge

Mentor’s Battle of the Photonic Bulge
by Mitch Heins on 12-07-2016 at 4:00 pm

A few weeks back I wrote an article mentioning that Mentor Graphics has been quietly working on solutions for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for some time now, while one of their competitors has recently established a photonics beachhead. One of the most common challenges for PIC designs is their curvilinear nature, thus… Read More


Heads Up! Photonics West is Just Around the Corner

Heads Up! Photonics West is Just Around the Corner
by Mitch Heins on 12-04-2016 at 4:00 pm

As I write about integrated photonics I continue to hear from long-time experts in the field who lament that integrated photonics has been around for decades and other than telecom/datacom, it seems to never be a mainstream technology. It’s hard to argue that this time around it will be different as those people have lived through… Read More


Cadence Design Secures Photonic Beachhead

Cadence Design Secures Photonic Beachhead
by Mitch Heins on 11-23-2016 at 12:00 pm

I had the privilege to attend a five-day PIC (photonic integrated circuit) training hosted by 7-Penniesand Tektronix in San Jose, CA this week. This training was quite comprehensive and covered photonic materials and platforms, design automation, fabrication, packaging and test. It also included invited talks from photonic… Read More


Fabless Photonic Design Flow Takes Shape as Cadence teams up with Lumerical and PhoeniX

Fabless Photonic Design Flow Takes Shape as Cadence teams up with Lumerical and PhoeniX
by Mitch Heins on 10-21-2016 at 4:00 pm

This week Cadence Design, Lumerical Solutions and PhoeniX Software hosted a two-day photonic summit and workshop. The first day had nearly 100 registered participants and featured industry leaders from Global Foundries, UCSB, MIT, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, General Electric, Boeing, Rockley Photonics, and Juniper Networks… Read More