Inverse design of photonic device footprints and waveguide locations

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform actions for designing a physical device, the actions comprising:

• receiving, by the computing system, a design specification that includes an input location, an output location, and at least one performance goal;
• generating, by the computing system, an initial design based on the design specification, wherein the initial design includes an input waveguide starting at the input location and extending to a end position, an output waveguide starting at a start position and extending to the output location, and a dispersive region;
• determining, by the computing system, a set of structural parameters based on the initial design;
• simulating, by the computing system, performance of the initial design using the set of structural parameters to determine a performance loss value based on the at least one performance goal;
• and
• updating, by the computing system, at least one of the end position of the input waveguide, the start position of the output waveguide, or a size of the dispersive region in the initial design using a gradient of the performance loss value.