VPI Launches New Co-simulation Feature for Use with Advanced Design System from Agilent Technologies

Holmdel NJ, July 22, 2003. VPIphotonics today unveiled a new co-simulation feature that incorporates electronic circuit models from Agilent's Advanced Design System (ADS) directly into VPI's award winning range of photonic simulation and design products. The new feature reduces the time it takes to incorporate high-speed electronics in photonic link designs.

VPI Group Technology Officer Arthur Lowery says the co-simulation feature creates an efficient work flow between best of breed design technologies. "Agilent's ADS provides a superb high-frequency electronic circuit design capability that is perfect for modeling the high-frequency circuits within optical communications systems. Furthermore, ADS has extensive libraries of components and materials for high-frequency design. This interface calls the ADS simulator executable directly from VPItransmissionMaker or VPIcomponentMaker, so that the best technologies for photonic and electronic design work together."

The VPI - ADS interface in VPItransmissionMaker seamlessly delivers electronic circuit designs to the WDM systems design environment, to model electrical amplifiers or laser drivers inside optical transmission system. During the automatic simulation process, ADS takes inputs from VPItransmissionMaker, calculates the output waveforms of the electronic circuit and transfers them back to VPI. The parameters of the ADS project can directly be addressed from within VPItransmissionMaker, allowing automatic sweep over various working conditions and optimizations to be performed.

"The new VPI co-simulation feature will advance industry efforts to understand electronic and photonic interactions in wireline systems," said Tom Phillips, product planning manager, Agilent Technologies. "By combining the best in class in both EDA (electronic design automation) and PDA (photonic design automation), Agilent and VPIphotonics now provide a design environment where electronic and photonic design decisions receive equal attention. Photonic system design will benefit, because the ever-improving performance of electronic circuits can now feed into photonic equipment designs at the conceptual stage".

The new VPI Agilent interface seamlessly delivers electronic circuit designs to WDM systems design experts, who can use this to model the electrical component such as an electrical amplifier or laser driver, within an optical transmission system.

For more information about VPIphotonics, visit www.vpiphotonics.com

For more information about EDA tools from Agilent Technologies, visit www.agilent.com/find/eesof

3rd Party Interfaces
Co-simulation allows parts of a simulation schematic to be modeled using 3rd party and in-house code. VPIsoftware provides live interfaces to MATLAB, Python and compiled code in a DLL (or shared library) so simulations seamlessly interact with models in these formats.