The Silicon Electronics-Photonics Integrated Circuits Fabrication (SiEPICfab) consortium, led by Lukas Chrostowski, has joined Belgian software company Luceda Photonics in a new partnership that will enable SiEPICfab, a leader in silicon photonics in Canada, to showcase its offerings to the international silicon photonics market. The partnership, which provides SiEPICfab’s process design kit (PDK) to all of Luceda’s existing and potential customers, leverages Luceda’s field-leading photonics expertise to expand the customer base for SiEPICfab and ensure the sustainability of this important venture.

SiEPICfab is a Canadian industry consortium that was founded at the University of British Columbia in 2018 to advance the fabrication of silicon photonic devices and photonic integrated circuits. By making leading-edge silicon photonic manufacturing accessible to Canadian and international academic and industry partners, SiEPICfab is leading the development of rapid prototyping and device fabrication for users in academia and industry. With the completion of the Nanofabrication Facility at the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute (Blusson QMI) in 2020, SiEPICfab has increased its capacity for prototyping and fabrication, and this new partnership with Luceda Photonics is an important next step in the consortium’s growth.

Silicon chips serve a similar function as the semiconducting electronic chips used in computers and other tech tools, but rather than passing electrical current signals, they use light. Photonics offers a more powerful and more efficient way to enable emerging applications such as quantum computers, 5G wireless communications, chip-scale switching networks for data processing, and Internet of Things technology.

Luceda Photonics offers the IPKISS Photonics Design Platform, a scripted environment that covers the complete photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design flow, from initial idea to design, simulation and validation. Its library management infrastructure is used by some of the largest research and industry players in the world. As part of its ecosystem, Luceda Photonics now provides the IPKISS PDK for SiEPIC, a library of predesigned photonic components. Mixing premade components, such as SiEPICfab’s, with from-scratch and custom elements, PIC designers can then design and test their devices and circuits and have them fabricated at SBQMI. In addition, the IPKISS PDK for SiEPIC has been included in Luceda’s training materials, making the PDK accessible on their online learning platform, Luceda Academy. In addition, SiEPICfab’s PDK will be included in Luceda’s training materials, making the PDK accessible to new and existing clients of Luceda Photonics, and expanding the consortium’s access to potential customers and collaborators.

Lukas Chrostowski is a leader in the field of silicon photonics, and using the training modules offered in this new partnership with Luceda Photonics, he will lead the next iteration of his popular EdX course, Silicon Photonics Design, Fabrication and Data Analysis, beginning May 5, 2021. For more information on the course, visit www.edx.org/course/silicon-photonics-design-fabrication-and-data-ana. For more information on Luceda Photonics’ training platform, Luceda Academy, and the Chrostowski-led materials included in the program, visit academy.lucedaphotonics.com/pdks/siepic.html.