• CEA-Leti's 310 nm photonics platform offers a wide array of capabilities. It can handle both 200 mm and 300 mm wafers; carry out etching at depths between 60 nm and 80 nm; provide very-low-loss silicon, nitride, and silicon nitride substrates; and add III-V components like lasers and modulators using wafer-level processes.

• The integration of the new PDK into a widely-used Mentor Graphics design flow means that users of the 310 nm platform will now also benefit from a fully-tooled, rigorous, and faster design process. CEA-Leti R&D partners can draw on a library of pre-validated components. They can also design new components specifically for the products they are developing. 
  

Compatible with automated line routing tool

• The PDK is also compatible with Mentor Graphics LightSuite^TM Photonic Compiler, an automated electronic and optical line routing tool for a seamless design flow. "A lot of designers are still doing manual routing," said CEA-Leti's Éléonore Hardy. "Photonic circuits already have dozens of components and will soon count around a hundred."
  

• CEA-Leti also has the capacity to handle small initial production runs for its R&D partners. Multi-project wafer processes allow partners to pay only for the amount of wafer surface they actually use. Circuits fabricated on the 310 nm platform target a wide range of applications, from datacoms and telecoms to LiDAR, HPC, and neuromorphic chips.
  

• For Mentor Graphics and CEA-Leti, the release of the PDK is the latest milestone in a multi-year partnership under IRT Nanoelec.