Luceda Photonics receives growth finance for the development and marketing of its advanced framework for photonic IC design

BELGIUM: Imec’s investment arm Fidimec and the Flemish spin-off investment fund SOFI I are investing EUR 340k in Luceda Photonics, a joint spin-off from Ghent University, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and imec. Luceda Photonics will use this financing to start commercialization of its photonics design software and to continue to invest in R&D for new product features.

LUCEDA Photonics was founded in June 2014 as a spin-off from Ghent University (UGent), the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and imec. The core of Luceda Photonics’ product offering is the IPKISS design framework. It covers the complete photonic IC design flow from component design and simulation through circuit definition and layout, all the way to tape-out and testing.

Its state of the art component library builds on years of design experience gathered over more than 300 validated designs. Other highlights of the IPKISS environment include CAPHE, a circuit simulation tool for complex optical circuits and B-CALM, a GPU accelerated FDTD simulator.

The IPKISS framework was originally developed by UGent’s Photonics Research Group and imec’s associated lab at UGent, while the VUB’s B-PHOT team developed the B-CALM software.

Erwin De Baetselier, CEO of Luceda Photonics, said: “We want photonic IC designers to enjoy the same first-time-right design experience as electronics IC designers. IPKISS is a state of the art environment that makes the design flow for photonic ICs robust and will save our customers considerable design time. The open nature of the IPKISS toolset permits the seamless integration of various third party or even in-house tools and measurement capabilities. The photonics designers will gain insight, repeatability and accuracy of their entire design process.”

Prof. Roel Baets, photonics professor at UGent and head of imec’s associated photonics lab at UGent, added: “Photonic ICs are on their way to become a mainstream industrial reality in the datacom, telecom and sensor markets. Together, UGent’s Photonics Research Group and imec’s associated photonics lab at UGent have invested many years to develop a unique design framework for photonics ICs. It is the right time now to bring this to the market. We are convinced that Luceda Photonics will have a substantial and lasting impact in this emerging industry”

Prof. Hugo Thienpont, head of VUB’s B-PHOT team, said: “By adding B-CALM to its product portfolio, Luceda Photonics offers its customers the unique possibility to efficiently design coupling structures to sub-wavelength plasmonic opto-electronic components. This puts Luceda Photonics in pole position for the design of ultra-high speed photonic ICs as used in datacenters and supercomputers.”