Discussion today:

Photonic circuit simulation

• Today we will introduce Lumerical INTERCONNECT, a

systems level photonic circuit simulator (think SPICE for
photonics).
– Simple introductory example: Fabry-Perot resonator simulation in
INTERCONNECT
– More complicated example: Extract S-parameters from FDTD
simulation and import into INTERCONNECT

1
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
 2
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Fabry-Perot etalon example

a1 b2

b1 Cavity
a2 = 0

Mirror 1 Mirror 2

Question: What is the power transmission through Fabry-Perot etalon?

| |
2
𝑏2
𝑇 =
𝑎1

3
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
S-parameter

|𝑆1 1
𝑆21
𝑆12
𝑆 22 |

Optical component Two-port representation

We can generalize the Fabry-Perot cavity (and other optical components) to

a two-port representation which is fully defined by a scattering matrix (S-parameters).
This is completely analogous to electrical circuits.

𝑆11 =
𝑏1
𝑎1 |
𝑎 2= 0
𝑆12 =
𝑏1
𝑎2 |𝑎 1=0
𝑆 22=
𝑏2
𝑎2 |𝑎1 =0
𝑆 21=
𝑏2
𝑎1 |
𝑎 2=0

4
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Fabry-Perot etalon example
r1 r2

a1 b’1 a’2 b2

b1 a’1 b’2 a2 = 0

Mirror 1 Mirror 2
L

Question: What is the power transmission through Fabry-Perot etalon?

| |
2
𝑏2 2
𝑇= =|𝑆21|
𝑎1

5
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Fabry-Perot etalon example
r1 r2

a1 b’1 a’2 b2

b1 a’1 b’2 a2 = 0

Mirror 1 Mirror 2
L

𝑏1= − 𝑟 1 𝑎 2+𝑡 1 𝑎 ′1

𝑏′1= 𝑡 1 𝑎1 +𝑟 1 𝑎′1

𝑏2 =𝑡 2 𝑎 ′2

𝑏 ′ 2=𝑟 2 𝑎 ′2

6
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
 Fabry-Perot etalon example
𝑏1= − 𝑟 1 𝑎 2+𝑡 1 𝑎 ′1 𝑏 ′ 2=𝑟 2 𝑎 ′2

𝑏′1= 𝑡 1 𝑎1 +𝑟 1 𝑎′1

𝑏2 =𝑡 2 𝑎 ′2

𝑏2 𝑡 2 𝑎′2 𝑡 1 𝑡 2 𝑎′2
𝑆 21 = = ¿ ′
𝑎1 𝑎1 ′
𝑏 1 − 𝑎1 𝑟 1
2 ( 1 − 𝑅)2
𝑡 1 𝑡 2 𝑎′2 𝑇 =|𝑆21| = 2
¿ ′ ′
( 1 − 𝑅 ) + 4 𝑅 sin 2 𝑘𝐿
𝑏 1 − 𝑎1 𝑟 1
2
𝑡 1 𝑡 2 𝑏′1 𝑒 − 𝑗𝑘𝐿 f ∨ 𝑅 =𝑟 1 =𝑟 2
2
¿ ′ ′ −2 𝑗𝑘𝐿
𝑏 1 − 𝑏1 𝑟 1 𝑟 2 𝑒
𝑡 1 𝑡 2 𝑒 − 𝑗𝑘𝐿
¿ −2 𝑗𝑘𝐿
1 −𝑟 1 𝑟 2 𝑒

7
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Fabry-Perot etalon example
2 (1 − 𝑅)2 Free spectral range (FSR)
𝑇 =|𝑆21| = 2
( 1 − 𝑅 ) + 4 𝑅 sin 2 𝑘𝐿 𝑐
𝜈 𝐹𝑆𝑅 =
2𝑛𝐿

R = 0.5
n = 2.8
L = 10µm

8
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Fabry-Perot etalon simulation

• Open INTERCONNECT
• Add two Mirror and one Straight waveguide elements to the
simulation space (click and drag)

9
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Fabry-Perot etalon simulation

• Change the following properties:

– Mirror  Reflectivity = 0.5
– Waveguide  Length = 10μm
Mode 1 effective index =
2.8
Mode 1 group index = 2.8
• Add one Optical Network Analyzer to
simulation space (AnalyzersOptical)
• Change the following properties:
– ONA  Number of input ports = 2
Frequency range = 50 THz
Number of points = 1000

10
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Fabry-Perot etalon simulation

Note: Port 1 should

be connected to the
input port of the ONA

11
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Fabry-Perot etalon simulation

• Run the simulation

• Click ONA in the Element
tree. In the Results view
right-click Input 2 
Mode 1  transmission
 Visualize  New
Visualizer

12
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Fabry-Perot etalon simulation

13
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
 Grating S-parameter l
b er )
fi ale
ca sc

| |
ti o
𝑏1 𝑏2 Op ot t
𝑆11 = 𝑆 22 = (n
𝑎1 𝑎 2= 0 𝑎2 𝑎1 =0

𝑆12 =
𝑏1
𝑎2 |
𝑎 =01
𝑆 21=
𝑏2
𝑎1 |
𝑎 2=0
a1
b1

ito ion
m pa e
ex od
on ns
r
M
a2
𝑆𝑖 b2

𝑆𝑖𝑂 2 Mode
expansion
monitor

𝑆𝑖

14
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Grating S-parameter
• How do we get the field coefficients
• Lumerical has built-in mode expansion monitor that can
determine these coefficients and allow us to extract S-
parameters.
• The mode expansion assumes field can be expanded using the
eigenmodes such that:

𝐄=∑ 𝑎𝑚 𝐄 𝑚𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑+𝑏 𝑚 𝐄 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑

𝑚
𝑚

• and are the complex modal coefficients and will be returned by

the mode expansion monitor. Important: the coefficients are
normalized to 1 V/m!

15
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
 Simulation #1 l
b er )
fi ale
ti ca sc
o
𝑆 22=
𝑏2
𝑎2 | 𝑎1 =0
Op ot t
(n

𝑆12 =
√ Power ∈fiber mode
×
𝑏1
Power ∈waveguide mode 𝑎2 𝑎 =0 | 1
b1

ito ion
m pa e
Necessary to

ex od
on ns
r
M
deal with
a2
Lumerical 𝑆𝑖
normalization b2

𝑆𝑖𝑂 2 Mode
expansion
monitor

𝑆𝑖

16
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
 Simulation #2 l
b er )
fi ale
ti ca sc
o
𝑆11 =
𝑏1
𝑎1 |
𝑎 2= 0
Op ot t
(n

√ |
a1
Power ∈waveguide mode 𝑏 2
𝑆 21= × b1
Power ∈fiber mode 𝑎1 𝑎 =0 2

ito ion
m pa e
Necessary to

ex od
on ns
r
M
deal with
Lumerical 𝑆𝑖
normalization b2

𝑆𝑖𝑂 2 Mode
expansion
monitor

𝑆𝑖

17
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Grating S-parameter extraction

• Open Lumerical FDTD file grating_coupler_S_param.fsp

• Open Lumerical script S_param_extraction.lsf (click and drag
into FDTD window)
• You will see grating geometry that we simulated at the end of
last discussion plus the addition of mode expansion monitors.
• The script will run the simulation twice and automatically
extract the S-parameters using the
mode expansion monitors and
save to a txt file.
• Run the script.

18
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Grating S-parameter extraction

Strong reflections
back toward source

19
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Grating S-parameter extraction

• Open the Lumerical INTERCONNECT file

grating_coupler_interconnect.icp

20
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Import S-parameter
• Select grating coupler 1 S-parameter symbol and within the
Property View  Standard  s parameters file name, double
click filename and click Open
• Select the txt file grating_S.txt
• Repeat for grating coupler 2.
• Open the Lumerical script file grating_coupler_interconnect.lsf
(click and drag into window or click icon)
• Run the script.

21
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
 Grating + waveguide simulation

Reflectance / Transmittance Combined S-parameter

Fabry-perot oscillations

22
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017
Summary
• This approach of extracting S-parameters and using
INTERCONNECT to run a system level circuit simulation has
two primary benefits:
– Break large simulation up into smaller simulations to reduce
memory requirement (may be useful for final project).
– Import empirically extracted S-parameters to build physically
based model of a full system.

23
EE232 Discussion 3/2/2017