Ansys Lumerical INTERCONNECT™ can act as a simulation engine in Synopsys OptoCompiler™ for photonic integrated circuits design. This integrated feature allows you to edit schematic, run simulation, and view results from OptoCompiler, leveraging its capabilities, while still running INTERCONNECT as a solver that simulates the circuit. This article describes the general processes for this workflow.
For detailed application examples that utilizes this workflow, see the Workflow examples section for photonic integrated circuit design in the Knowledge Base article on Lumerical-OptoCompiler Integration.
Requirements
Operating system
The integrated functionalities must run on a supported Linux operating system. These functionalities are not available on Windows.
The following pages provides information on supported operating systems:
License
Integrated functionalities between Lumerical and OptoCompiler requires valid licenses for all products that you wish to use.
- Lumerical license: A valid Lumerical Business (Standard) license for Ansys Lumerical INTERCONNECT™, or an Enterprise license.
- OptoCompiler license: The F818-0 OptoCompiler Elite license.
Product version
You can use the OptoCompiler Schematic Editor to create and edit the schematic for the photonic integrated circuit. To open the schematic editor, find the cell for your workbench, and open the “schematic” view.
Ensure that you meet the following product version requirements:
- Ansys Lumerical release 2026 R1 or newer
- Synopsys tools release 2026.03 or newer
Creating and editing a schematic
You can use the OptoCompiler Schematic Editor to create and edit the schematic for the photonic integrated circuit. To open the schematic editor, find the cell for your workbench, and open the “schematic” view.
For further information on how to use the schematic editing environment in OptoCompiler, please refer to the OptoCompiler in-product help.
Component libraries
For INTERCONNECT simulations in OptoCompiler, you can use an INTERCONNECT primitive elements library in OptoCompiler (INTERCONNECTLib), as well as custom INTERCONNECT compact model libraries.
INTERCONNECT library
Once you set up the environment, a library containing some INTERCONNECT elements, named “INTERCONNECTLib” is automatically included in the library list in OptoCompiler. This library contains some elements available from the INTERCONENCT element library, but not all elements.
Custom libraries
Custom component libraries are distributed by PDK designers and should contain an INTERCONNECT compact model library (CML), as well as a set of symbols and views defined as an OptoCompiler library through a lib.defs file, which should contain the necessary mapping as described in the Knowledge Base article for using an INTERCONNECT CML in OptoCompiler.
To use the custom libraries, you must first install the CML in INTERCONNECT, and include the lib.defs file in OptoCompiler. For further information on including the lib.defs file, see the “Editing Library Definitions” article within OptoCompiler help by searching “Library Definitions Editor” in the OptoCompiler in-product help.
Setting up simulation and analysis
Note: Note: As of Lumerical 2026 R1.2, and OptoCompiler 2026.03-SP1, both ONA and transient (otran) analysis are available for this workflow. Prior to these versions, only transient analysis was available.
To setup an INTERCONNECT simulation from schematic, you can open the PrimeWave design environment by pressing Tools->PrimeWave from the top menu bar.
To setup an INTERCONNECT simulation with this window, follow these steps:
- In the PrimeWave window, press Setup>Simulator and select INTERCONNECT as the Simulator. You can also select the Result Directory and configure the Testbench name as needed.
- Add an analysis by right-clicking the analysis window on the top-right, and press edit in the context menu to open the menus to add an analysis.
- In the opened menu, edit the simulation configurations. Follow the sections below for the description on each analysis type.
- Ensure that the Enable box is checked and press OK or Apply to add it to the analysis to run.
The INTERCONNECT analysis is now set up, and you can proceed on defining the outputs.
Transient (otran) analysis options
The options available in the otran menu are the same as those available in the INTERCONNECT ROOT element.
ONA analysis options
The options available in the ona analysis menu is split into three tabs, Standard, Enhanced, and Root Element. These options come from both the INTERCONNECT ROOT element as well as the INTERCONNECT Optical Network Analyzer element.
Standard
Due to the differences in how schematics are set up between INTERCONNECT and OptoCompiler, you must specify a port on the schematic to be the injection port of the ONA via the ONA Source option as described below. This is the port where signal from the ONA is injected into the circuit.
The options in this tab are as follows:
| Option | Description |
| Input Parameter | Determines how the frequency range of the analysis is defined. |
| Center Wavelength (Meters) | Center wavelength of the ONA signal in meters. Only available if the input parameter field is set to center and range. |
| Wavelength Range (Meters) | Range of wavelength of the ONA signal in meters. Only available if the input parameter field is set to center and range. |
| Start Wavelength (Meters) | Minimum wavelength of the ONA signal in meters. Only available if the input parameter field is set to start and stop. |
| Stop Wavelength (Meters) | Maximum wavelength of the ONA signal in meters. Only available if the input parameter field is set to start and stop. |
| Number of Points | Number of sample points of the ONA signal. |
| Orthogonal Identifier | The identifier used to track an orthogonal mode of an optical waveguide. Use 1 for the TE mode and 2 for TM mode. |
| ONA Analysis Type |
Defines the type of ONA analysis to perform. For further information on the types of analysis, see the Implementation Details section of the INTERCONNECT ONA element. Note: When using the impulse response analysis type, sample rate is appropriately set. |
| Multithreading | Set the multithreading options for INTERCONNECT. Only available for the scattering data analysis type. |
| Number of Threads | Set the number of threads for multithreading for INTERCONNECT. Only available for the scattering data analysis type. |
| ONA Source |
Set the port for the ONA to inject the optical signal into. This is the port where signal from the ONA is injected into the circuit. You can only select a port at the root level, and not one inside a compound element. You can use the |
Enhanced
The options in this tab are the same as those available in the Enhanced Properties section of the INTERCONNECT Optical Network Analyzer element, please refer to that Knowledge Base article for further information.
Note: The sensitivity option in OptoCompiler is in W, whereas that in INTERCONNECT defaults to dBm.
Root Element
The options in this tab are the same as those available in INTERCONNECT ROOT element, please refer to that Knowledge Base article for further information.
Define outputs
General procedure
To plot results, you must first set them up in the outputs tab near the bottom of the window using the section below. Follow the instructions below to define simulation signal outputs to be plotted after the simulation.
- In the Output tab, click on the Expression column in a blank row to add a signal, then, select the schematic icon and click on a port in the schematic in the opened window to add that signal to the output. For INTERCONNECT schematics, all signals belong to a port. Key syntaxes for expressions are discussed below.
- Edit the Plot Type and Plot Color as needed for your result. For example, to plot a signal as an eye diagram, you can use the eyediag option.
Output setup is now complete, and you can proceed on running the simulation and viewing the results.
Key syntaxes for INTERCONNECT simulations
Optical transient signals
For optical signals, OptoCompiler uses the calculator expression ph. The second argument in this expression marks the mode name, by default, this is populated as te. This mode name is equivalent to mode identifiers in INTERCONNECT, such that te is equivalent to identifier 1, and tm is equivalent to identifier 2. If you do not have any TM sources in the schematic, no TM results will be available and attempting to plot them using tm as the second argument in ph will result in an error.
ONA analysis
To read results from an ONA analysis, you must use the calculator expression ona. This command only obtains the signal for the orthogonal identifier set in the ONA analysis.
The syntax for this expression is as follows:
ona(port, attribute)Where:
-
port: Defines the port from which to obtain the signal, for example,/I2/port_2 -
attribute: An ONA result for that given port. The results are available in the calculator window by going to Results->Analyzer->Calculator and double-clicking on the ona command, and are listed below.
| Analysis Type | Description |
| transmission | The complex transmission vs. wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| angle | The angle vs. wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| group_delay | The group delay vs. wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| group_velocity | The normalized group velocity vs. wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| dispersion | The normalized dispersion vs. wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| loss | The loss vs. wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| gain | The gain vs. wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| peak_transmission | The complex transmission vs. peak wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| peak_frequency | The peak wavelength corresponding to the selected port. |
| peak_angle | The angle vs. peak wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| peak_group_delay | The group delay vs. peak wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| peak_group_velocity | The normalized group velocity vs. peak wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| peak_dispersion | The normalized dispersion vs. peak wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| peak_loss | The loss vs. peak wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
| peak_gain | The gain vs. peak wavelength corresponding to the selected optical mode. |
Running simulation
To run the INTERCONNECT simulation using the analysis and outputs defined above, follow these steps.
- In the PrimeWave window, netlist the simulation by clicking on Simulation->Netlist->Create from the top menu.
- Run the simulation by clicking on Simulation->Run from the top menu.
The simulation is now running, and you can follow the section below to examine its progress.
After the simulation starts, a Job Monitor tab and result view tab now appears in the OptoCompiler interface.
In the Job Monitor tab, your simulation displays as FINISHED once it completes. You can double-click on the status to open the INTERCONNECT log file.
Visualizing results
Once the simulation completes, you can use the result view tab to plot signals by right-clicking on the signal icon in the main window and clicking Plot.
Here, you can utilize the full potential of WaveView to visualize results. Please see the WaveView documentation for further information on its capabilities and usage guides.
See Also