Photonic Skill Project

Photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design and simulation project using Tidy3D and FEMwell for electromagnetic wave simulations.

Project Structure

photonic_skill_project/
├── 1_pn_phase_shifter_FEMWELL/    # PN phase shifter analysis using FEMwell
├── 2_SiN_single_mode_wg_FEMWELL/  # Silicon nitride single-mode waveguide
├── 3_2x2_splitter_MEEP/           # Passive component designs (MMI, couplers)
├── 4_simplest_transceiver_layout_GDSFactory/            # Layout files (GDS)
├── 5_bend_waveguide_Tidy3D/       # Bent waveguide characterization
├── environment.yml                # Conda environment specification
├── pyproject.toml                 # Python project configuration
└── README.md                      # This file

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Miniconda or Mamba
• Python 3.13+

Installation

# Create environment from file
conda env create -f environment.yml

# Activate environment
conda activate pmp

Or using uv:

uv sync

Components

1. PN Phase Shifter (FEMWELL)

Analysis of reverse-biased PN junction phase shifters using FEMwell mode solver. Calculates:

• Refractive index change due to carrier depletion
• Lπ: π phase shift length for given applied voltages
• Insertion loss

2. Silicon Nitride Single-Mode Waveguide

FEMWELL-based single-mode waveguide characterization for SiN platform. For fixed waveguide thickness, and variable width, calculates effective index of up to 8 modes, and sets the maximum width for which it is single-mode.

3. Passive Design

• MMI 2x2: Multimode interference splitter design and optimization
• Directional Coupler: Coupler design with S-parameter extraction
• GDS Files: Layout exports for fabrication

4. Bent Waveguide Characterization

Bend loss and mode analysis for curved waveguide structures.

5. Transceiver Layout

Implementation of the simplest transceiver layout in GDSFactory.

Simulation Tools

Tool	Purpose	Availability
Tidy3D	FDTD simulations (3D)	Subscription required
FEMwell	FEM mode solver (2D cross-section)	Open-source
Meep	FDTD with MPI parallelization	Open-source

Notebooks

• draft.ipynb — Initial development and testing
• tidy3d_example.ipynb — Tidy3D tutorial examples

License

MIT