Accelerate the Photonic IC Design with Cadence EPDA Environment

By Vinod Khera, Cadence

December 10, 2024

Do you believe the existing semiconductor methodologies will adequately support the ever-increasing data rate and latency?

Transistor scaling has always existed, but increasing parasitics with smaller process nodes, elevated clock speeds, and latency leads to a surge in data movement energy and latency. These costs are unacceptable for applications that depend on transferring substantial amounts of data across varied systems.

The growing need for advanced computing capabilities, rapid communication, and expansive data centers are fueling the demands for increasing data rates in communication across dies, sockets, boards, systems, and racks. As Moore’s law reaches its boundaries, advancements in materials science, chip design, and photonic technologies pave the way for high-speed, low-power communication. The convergence of semiconductors and photonics represents a paradigm shift, allowing high-bandwidth, energy-efficient devices that seamlessly merge electronic and photonic components.

This blog explores the opportunities and challenges of combining semiconductors and photonics, emphasizing their applications in crucial industries like telecommunications, data centers, bio-photonics, and environmental sensing. It will also explain how Cadence electronic/photonic design automation (EPDA) tools are setting the stage for this exciting shift, creating pathways to highly efficient photonic IC design.

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