Designing and optimizing Application Specific Photonic Integrated Circuit (ASPICs) requires knowledge of how to integrate several active optical devices, such as lasers and photo-detectors, and passive structures like splitters and interferometers on a single chip.
This requires highly qualified designers with expertise and knowledge of topics such as electromagnetic theory, cryogenic PIC component design, photonic layout and electromagnetic simulation software and quantum computing systems, to name just a few.
It is also critical to know the best semiconductor material platform for the design and which foundry will be able to manufacture and scale up production of the device.
To meet these challenges, photonic design houses offer specialist advice on ASPIC design and a variety of pre-configured building blocks that can be put together like Lego, which minimizes risk, speeds up design and reduces development costs.