A Rigorous Circuit Model for Simulation of Large-Scale Photonic Integrated Circuits

Abstract

A rigorous circuit model for the simulation of large-scale photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is proposed and validated. Different from the conventional circuit theory, both guided and radiation fields are taken into consideration in the circuit model. A PIC of arbitrary size and complexity is partitioned into a collection of basic circuit elements interconnected via physical and virtual ports. The model parameters describing the terminal properties of the circuit elements are extracted by numerical techniques for photonic device simulation such as FDTD method. The performance of the entire PIC can be simulated by conventional circuit simulation algorithms based on the complex scattering matrix formalism. In contrast with the existing numerical simulation techniques, the circuit model and the simulation methodology are more flexible, efficient, and scalable for the analysis of large-scale PICs.