Recent advances in processing technology have enabled the development of integrated optoelectronics as viable commercial products to meet the high-end needs of telecommunications, data-communications, computing, and signal processing applications. However, the performance and complexity of these components is limited by the computer-aided design software available for their development. Currently, no comprehensive suite of CAD tools is available for the range of tasks required in the design and analysis of optoelectronic integrated circuits. As the growth in complexity and capability of electronic integrated circuits were fueled by integrated CAD tools from schematic capture, circuit simulation, and circuit layout to system simulation, the full potential of optoelectronics circuits and systems will be realized only when a comprehensive suite of CAD tools is available to drastically reduce the design cycle time and increase the complexity of optoelectronics integrated circuits. Such a suite of CAD tools would also facilitate development of novel optoelectronic components and systems which could not be developed otherwise. aCADian proposes to develop such a suite of optoelectronics CAD tools to meet designers' needs through the entire design process from materials and structure design, optical and electrical circuitry layout, waveguide simulation, to circuit- and system-level simulation.
