Photonic circuit design systems

A non-transitory computer-readable medium that, when executed via a processor, is to implement a method for generating a photonic circuit design, the method comprising:

• generating a photonic circuit netlist via user inputs provided at a circuit design tool, the photonic circuit netlist comprising a plurality of photonic design components associated with a photonic circuit design;
• determining package constraints associated with physical characteristics of a photonic circuit package in which a photonic circuit associated with the photonic circuit design is to be fabricated;
• accessing physical data associated with each of the plurality of photonic design components from a component library stored in a memory system;
• implementing a positional layout algorithm to arrange the photonic design components in a physical layout in the photonic circuit design in the photonic design package based on the physical data and the package constraints defined in the photonic circuit netlist;
• implementing an interconnection algorithm to define optical interconnections between the plurality of photonic design components based on the physical layout of the photonic circuit design in the photonic circuit package in response to port connectivity data and the package constraints defined in the photonic circuit netlist, wherein implementing the positional layout algorithm comprises arranging the photonic design components based on at least one of a position constraint and an orientation constraint defined in the photonic circuit netlist to substantially minimize a physical size of a photonic circuit associated with the photonic circuit design;
• storing the photonic circuit design in the memory system;
• and
• providing feedback to the circuit design tool to allow a user to overwrite the calculated desired position of the non-laid-out photonic design component.

A photonic circuit design system comprising:

• a photonic circuit design tool to facilitate user inputs to generate a photonic circuit netlist comprising a plurality of photonic design component and an electronic design component associated with a photonic circuit design;
• a memory system to store the photonic circuit netlist and a component library comprising a plurality of predetermined photonic design components from which the photonic design components are selected and a plurality of predetermined electronic design components from which the electronic design component is selected, the component library further comprising physical data associated with physical characteristics of the plurality of predetermined photonic design components and the plurality of predetermined electronic design components;
• and
• a photonic circuit generator to access the photonic circuit netlist from the memory and the respective photonic and electronic design components from the component library based on the photonic circuit netlist and to implement a hierarchical algorithm associated with package constraints defined in the photonic circuit netlist and associated with physical characteristics of the photonic circuit package in which the photonic circuit associated with the photonic circuit design is to be fabricated, a physical layout of the photonic design components and the electronic design component in the photonic circuit package based on at least one of a position constraint and an orientation constraint defined in the photonic circuit netlist relative to the physical characteristics, and an interconnection algorithm of interconnections between the photonic design components in the photonic circuit package based on port connectivity data in the photonic circuit netlist to generate the photonic circuit design,
• wherein the photonic circuit generator comprises a positional layout algorithm to arrange the photonic design component based on at least one of a position constraint and an orientation constraint defined in the photonic circuit netlist to substantially minimize a physical size of a photonic circuit associated with the photonic circuit design, the positional layout algorithm further configured to calculate a desired position for an non-laid-out photonic design component based on a placement position of a previously-laid out photonic design component, and
• wherein the photonic circuit design generator is configured to provide feedback to the photonic circuit design tool to allow a user to overwrite the calculated desired position of the non-laid-out photonic design component.