Photonics

AWG

An Arrayed Waveguide Grating. Used for filtering light (mux/demux). This device is used a lot in telecommunication and biosensing. Luceda has a separate product ‘Luceda AWG Designer’, which allows a user to create AWGs based on high-level specifications and generate both the physical layout and simulation models.

EME

Eigen Mode Expansion (and propagation). A physical simulation methodology to solve Maxwell’s equations. Typically limited to structures in which light propagates mainly in one direction but can be fast while sufficiently accurate.

FDTD

Finite Difference Time Domain. A physical simulation methodology to solve Maxwell’s equations. Accurate (limited by grid size and material models) and generic (e.g. all-angle) but memory and time consuming.

FPR

Free Propagation Region. The open slab area in a star coupler of an AWG or Echelle grating in which the light can freely propagate in-plane.

Material Stack

A stack of layers of different materials and heights, representing one possible cross-section resulting from a planar IC fabrication process.

MZI

Mach-Zehnder Interferometer. A photonic circuit used to filter light. See also Mach-Zehnder Interferometers.

PIC

Photonic Integrated Circuit

Scatter Matrix

The behavior of a passive optical device can be described by its scatter matrix (S-matrix, S-parameters). Please check scatter matrix for more information.