IPKISS Software Tutorial

Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 19:00 -21:00
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
instructor: Wim Bogaerts

We will present the IPKISS parametric design framework. IPKISS is a very flexible scripting framework focused at (but not limited to) integrated photonics design. It enables component-centric design, where users can define parametric building blocks and circuits in a hierarchical component library. From that library, it is easy to attach different concepts to components, such as mask layout, circuit models (e.g. an S-matrix), internal connectivity (netlists) and external connectivity (ports). These views can then be used to generate very complex lithography masks for fabrication, or launch physical and circuit-level simulations, directly from the design framework. IPKISS differs from many design tools because it does not have a graphical user interface. Instead, it is entirely script driven using the industry standard language Python. This increases flexibility and dramatically reduces duplicate work. Also, python comes with many scientific and visualization libraries, and interfacing IPKISS with different simulation packages is easy. It has a built-in mode solver, an interface to MEEP (FDTD), eigenmode propagation (CAMFR), and circuit simulation in both time domain and frequency domain (Caphe). Also, proof-of-concept interfaces with some commercial photonic and electronic design tools have been demonstrated.

In the tutorial, we will illustrate the power of IPKISS by constructing a basic photonic design in layout, running a physical simulation and a circuit simulation on it, all from the same environment. We will also give an overview of some of the more powerful predefined constructs, including a comprehensive library of photonic building blocks (waveguides, splitters, combiners, resonators, gratings and all the way to arrayed waveguide gratings ). A significant set of the IPKISS functionality has been open-sourced. The tutorial will not be hands-on, but it will be based on a set of examples that is included with IPKISS.

More information on how to get and use IPKISS can be found on www.ipkiss.org.