Silicon Photonics

Course | Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
Semester: Fall 2025
Instructor: Dr. Mahdi Nikdast

Course Overview

This course explored the principles, design methodologies, and system-level implications of silicon photonics for high-performance computing and communication systems. Adopting a multidisciplinary, bottom-up approach, the course bridged device-level photonic physics with circuit, architecture, and system-level design considerations. Emphasis was placed on analytical modeling, simulation, and layout of silicon photonic components, as well as their integration into scalable, energy-efficient computing and interconnect systems. The course combined theory with hands-on experience using industry-standard design and simulation tools.

Silicon Photonic Devices
Developed a foundational understanding of silicon photonic waveguides and passive components, including couplers and resonators, with emphasis on CMOS-compatible fabrication and physical operating principles.
Active Photonic Components
Analyzed active devices such as modulators, switches, and photodetectors, focusing on performance metrics, loss mechanisms, bandwidth limitations, and power efficiency.
Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs)
Studied the design and analysis of silicon photonic integrated circuits, including link-level modeling and circuit-level performance evaluation.
Modeling & Simulation
Performed analytical modeling and numerical simulation of photonic devices and circuits using Lumerical tools, supported by MATLAB and Python-based data analysis.
Layout & Physical Design
Gained hands-on experience with photonic layout design using Klayout and PDKs, addressing layout constraints, design rules, and manufacturability considerations.
Electronic–Photonic Co-Design
Explored electronic-photonic co-design and co-simulation strategies to optimize performance, power, and area in tightly integrated systems.
System-Level Applications
Evaluated applications of silicon photonics in communication, computation, switching, and data-center-scale systems, including optical interconnects for many-core and AI systems.
Design Trade-offs & Variability
Analyzed design challenges related to process variation, scalability, and reliability, emphasizing trade-offs between performance, energy efficiency, and integration complexity.
Research & Project-Based Design
Completed a research-driven design project involving simulation, layout, and system analysis of a silicon photonic device or subsystem, culminating in a technical report and presentation.

Technical Scope

Project: Thermo-Optic Phase Shifter Design

The goal of this project was to design and simulate a thermo-optic phase shifter for silicon photonic switches using comprehensive multiphysics modeling. By combining thermal, optical, and electromagnetic simulations in Ansys Lumerical, the phase shifter was optimized for low power consumption (~6 mW for π phase shift) and fast switching speeds (~20 μs). Built on a standard silicon-on-insulator platform compatible with CMOS fabrication processes, the design targets integration into Mach-Zehnder Interferometer switches for high-performance optical routing. The broader objective was to advance energy-efficient photonic switching technology for next-generation data centers and optical computing architectures, where scalable and reliable optical interconnects are critical for managing massive data throughput.

Final Thoughts

This course provided hands-on experience in designing, simulating, and evaluating silicon photonic devices and systems using industry-standard tools. It strengthened my ability to bridge device-level physics with circuit and system-level performance considerations. The experience directly prepared me for roles involving photonic integration, hardware design, and high-performance computing systems.