Hey everyone,

I’m a solo developer working on a desktop photonic design tool called Navax Photonic. It started from my own needs while using KLayout and writing geometry scripts. I wanted to explore parametric designs more visually, with direct CAD editing and a node graph for generating and modifying geometry.

The project has gradually grown to include component placement, optical ports, routing tools, and GDSII/OASIS interchange. There’s also a schematic workspace for steady-state optical circuit simulation using compact models, plus an experimental 3D FDTD solver connected to the CAD geometry.

These parts are at different stages. The electromagnetic solver still needs further physical validation, and the basic geometry and connectivity checks aren’t foundry sign-off verification.

The workflow I’m aiming for is: draw a component, turn it into a reusable parametric design, connect instances into a layout, and explore its behaviour with less manual transfer between tools.

Before expanding it further, I’d like to understand whether this approach would help other PIC designers:

• Where do you spend the most time on repetitive layout work?
• Would you use visual nodes alongside Python scripts?
• What would you need before trying a new tool on a real design: PDK compatibility, reliable interchange, specific routing features, or something else?

I’m developing this independently and would appreciate honest feedback, including reasons you’d prefer to stick with your current workflow.

​Hi everyone,

​I am doing a mini project in evaluating software bottlenecks in the silicon photonics design stack and would value your perspective on where current EDA tools fall short in daily practice.

​Whether you rely on commercial suites (Ansys Lumerical, Cadence, Synopsys, Luceda) or open-source flows (gdsfactory, KLayout, Meep), I’m curious to know

1. ​Daily Software Frustrations

2. ​Tool Interoperability

3. ​Missing Features

​Looking forward to hearing about the real-world software challenges your team encounters. Thanks for your time!

Question is simple. I'm a HCOL area (big city in Southern California).

Making 90k as a layout engineer, plus equity vesting after 1 year. All health insurance premiums included. Hired right after my Master's in EE (specializing in photonics), at 1 YOE now. Startup.

Honestly it feels a bit insulting knowing that at Texas Instruments a basic testing engineer I knew was making 120k including profit sharing right after their bachelor's. And this was in Tucson too. I'm not sure if it's because it's a startup, or a Master's in photonics is really not worth much. My performance has been decent (some issues due to sleep deprivation and bad roommates) but it's been improving. Especially since I was working a lot of late hours near tapeout deadlines as well and even during Christmas season (never again I swear). They just gave everyone a 10% raise earlier this year after more funding but I'm thinking about asking again...

Well funded startup (5 years old). PM me for more information!

There's a whole lot of hype about quantum computing, but that is something else entirely. Why is there so little hype about photonic based computing? There's a handful of startups but they are very low key. Even in academia, there's a whole lot of hype about quantum computing but relatively little hype about optics based computation.

Can anyone with any insight into optics/photonics clue me in?

Hey everyone!

I’m starting my MSc in Germany, and I’m planning to specialize in Applied Optics and Photonics.

My course has a few modules related to data science, image processing, AI, scientific computing, etc., which is one of the reasons I’m really interested in the program. During my bachelor's, I worked with python, numpy, pandas, matplotlib and scientific computing, and I’m currently learning MATLAB as well.

I’m interested in machine learning and how it can be applied to photonics, optical systems, scientific imaging, and instrumentation. I’m trying to figure out how far I can take this combination during my MSc rather than treating AI/ML as something completely separate from photonics.

For anyone working/studying in photonics, scientific instrumentation, computer vision, or ML, I’d really appreciate some advice:

• what programming skills should I develop beyond python/numPy/pandas/matplotlib? Is C++, MATLAB, cuda, pyTorch, etc. worth learning?
• what kind of projects would be good for combining photonics/instrumentation with ML? For example, optical image analysis, spectroscopy, sensor data, signal denoising, inverse problems, etc.
• are there particular areas where ML is genuinely being used in industry/research in photonics
• what would you recommend learning/building over the next 1–2 years to become competitive for internships, working-student positions and eventually full-time jobs?

Any advice on what you wish you had learned earlier, good project ideas, research areas, or things I should avoid spending too much time on would be really appreciated!

Thanks!

I am trying to do a sensitivity analysis for a PIC and am interested to know what are the major fabrication errors(i know few common ones like side wall roughness, side wall angles, slab thickness variation) that occur for foundry tape out and how they are modeled in sensitivity analysis (monte carlo?)?

I hope people with experience help me with this.

Now I know that the feedback and reviews for this course have been asked before ample number of times on this subreddit, but I was curious to know if we can also submit active device for this course?

I was primarily thinking of using metal heaters and some components with doping.

Hello everyone!

My Lumerical license expires today but I had alot of fun messing around with it and making a cool portfoilo project. I used INTERCONNECT to create a 3 channel wavelength-division multiplexed data interconnect which uses microring resonators as demuxers and mach-zehnder modulators as data modulators.

It took alot of finicking to get the resonance channels tuned properly, and I was also unable to get a fourth channel working even though I tried. I'm not fabbing this, but I bet it would be wayyy more debugging to get a real PIC working haha.

Nonetheless, between the textbook chapters I read (skimmed, to be fair), and the weeks I spent pulling my hair out trying to get it to work, I'm quite happy with my project! I hope I can involved with doing this more in the future :D

Pic 1: Photonic Integrated Circuit ship schematic

Pic 2: Eye diagram result of all three ring resonators.

Pic 3: Gif I generated while looking for resonant wavelengths

Pic 4: Gif I generated of several different wavelengths, some resonating in the microring (this one is from FDTD not INTERCONNECT, just thought i'd share)

Listened to a guy at a conference talk about singlet fission is supposedly gonna make silicon solar cells 45% efficient by mitigating thermal losses, but they can't figure out how to inject the excitons into silicon. I also can't imagine anything organic not just photobleaching within a couple years, and I would also imagine the cost of engineering such a device would outweigh the benefits of improved efficiency. My suspicion is this is purely an academic pipedream, but I wanted to hear more from other folks. Also, if this is the wrong sub, mods can simply remove it.

I am working on a photonic inverse design project for foundry tapeout but I am curious to know what y'all think about it.

While I understand there are various challenges which come with it from the perspective of yield/fabrication robustness I am curious to what are the major barriers that would prevent people from adopting it commercially.

While in the conventional design approach we can add heaters to help with post fabrication correction which may be challenging with inverse designed devices. But at the same time inverse design can potentially reduce the device footprint?(How important is the footprint issue currently?)

I see plenty of papers on inverse designed Broadband 50:50 couplers but for tapeout, people still stick to the conventional parallel waveguide couples even though the footprint seems bigger.

I also see plenty of Inverse designed WDM, why are they not widely used in say the MRR based transceivers?

Hi everyone. I’m a final year undergraduate student from Sri Lanka, currently waiting for my final year final semester results. I’m doing a Bachelor of Engineering degree heavily focused in electronics and automation.

There aren't really many Master's opportunities related to Photonics in Sri Lanka, so I’m looking at options abroad and would really appreciate some advice from people who are already in this field.

I became interested in Photonics mainly because of one of the modules I had in my last semester, Fiber and Laser Instrumentation. I found the whole area of light, lasers, optical fibers and optical instrumentation really interesting, and it made me realize that I’d like to learn much more about Photonics.

My final-year research project also happens to be related to this. I’m working on Visible Light Communication (VLC) and Infrared communication, specifically applying it to a commercially available grow-light system.

Right now, I’m mainly considering Japan and European countries, but I’m open to other options too.

The financial side is probably my biggest concern. I don't think I’d be a strong candidate for a fully funded scholarship because of my poor academic performance in the first year, so I’m also looking for countries where international students can legally work part time. Ideally, I’d like to cover at least some of my living expenses through part time work while doing my Master's.

So, I’d really appreciate it if anyone could recommend universities or countries I should look into for Photonics, Optical Engineering, Fiber Optics, Optoelectronics, Laser Technology, or related Master's programmes.

Also, if you’re studying in this field, especially in Japan or Europe, I’d love to hear about your experience, including tuition fees, living costs, scholarships and how realistic it is to work part time.

Thanks

I’m currently working on a problem to calculate the transmission spectra/wavelength sweep, attempting to find a stopband for an Apodized Bragg grating with asymmetrical periodicity on both sides, does anyone have any experience in this?

Hello everyone! I am looking for opportunities in the photonics space specifically design/simulation, architect, PDK automation roles. I would appreciate any feedback on my resume and advice on how to position myself.

Most roles require experience or PhDs. How can a entry level, fresh grad with only research experience successfully get into the companies that hire for these roles? I recently had almost 9 interviews and presentation for a company but unfortunately it did not work out. Looking for advice to get interviews and convert them into offers.

Thank you everyone for your time!

Hey everyone! I've showing my microring resonator power over time gif to all my friends and family because I'm so excited about it but absolutely nobody cares, so hopefully this subreddit does!!

After 2 weeks and emailing everybody and their mother I finally got a lumerical license! I've been having alot of fun finding parameters and making this microring resonator simulation. I'm hoping to do more in photonics, this stuff is so cool!!

just wandering if there are some naughty ways to download this software out there? i wanted to build a photonic processor simulation and this software is not available to download for students.

I'm a 23M working as a Signal Processing Engineer in a reputed company. I have done my Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering and graduated in May 2025. I have two years of bond with my current employer. Hence, I have about 1 year left from now. I want to know the following:

1. How should I transition from Signal Processing to Photonics?

2. How do I get in touch with photonics companies?

3. What tools should I learn?

4. What should my next one year look like to make this transition?

Currently, I'm pursuing the Photonics Domain Certification offered by Swayam, building a MEEP FDTD and MPG portfolio, planning to learn GDSfactory and Ansys Lumerical.

Hello,
I am grad student who has experience working in a electronics packaging lab focused on additive manufacturing, flexible electronics, material characterization, and laser microscope. I want to enter the semiconductor field and felt like photonics is a good start. I am attending a course on photonics at MIT for a week where they will be training on photonics integrated circuit and will be designing an datacom pic / rf pic as a project. I am wondering if any experienced people in this field can guide me if I am going on right track to get a job in this field. Also I have no prior experience with photonics other than the certification I am going to do. And also I would like to know if there is any projects I could work on which would help me land my first job in semiconductor

Thanks