Cary, North Carolina – November 15, 2016 – Coventor, a leading supplier of semiconductor process development tools, today announced that it will collaborate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (“MIT”) on silicon photonics process modeling. MIT is a key player in the AIM Photonics program, a federally funded, public-private partnership established to advance domestic capabilities in integrated photonic technology and strengthen high-tech U.S.-based manufacturing. Coventor will provide its SEMulator3D® process modeling platform to model the effect of process variation in the development of photonic integrated components. Integration of photonics with conventional CMOS technology is needed for next-generation scientific, industrial and consumer applications ranging from data communications to metrology to aerospace applications.
“Silicon photonics is an emerging field that has the potential to revolutionize both the photonics and electronics industries as we know them today,” said David Fried, Chief Technical Officer at Coventor. “The advantages of using light to transmit information are clear but also bring significant complications, especially around integrating photonics into semiconductor electronics. This is the challenge that Coventor will help MIT address. Our close collaboration with MIT and other leaders in this important area will help guide our vision as we advance our process modeling platform to support the design and manufacturing of emerging silicon photonic devices.”
The proliferation of computers, mobile devices, smart technology and the Internet of Things, has placed a strain on existing electronics and telecommunications systems. To satisfy increasing capacity and performance requirements, optics and photonics are needed. Photonics enables faster data transfer but has fundamental elements incompatible with electronics. Fiber optics use photons to transmit data and are produced on indium phosphide wafers while electronic circuits use electrons to communicate and are produced on silicon wafers.
“To realize the advantages of photonics, we must be able to more deeply integrate this photonic technology with CMOS technology. Coventor’s technical expertise in predicting the manufacturability of advanced technologies is outstanding. Our joint collaboration with Coventor will help us develop new design methods for achieving high yield and high performance in integrated photonic applications,” said Professor Duane Boning of MIT.
About Coventor
Coventor, Inc. (www.coventor.com) is the market leader in advanced solutions for developing semiconductor process technology, as well as micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). Coventor serves a worldwide customer base of integrated device manufacturers, memory suppliers, fabless design houses, independent foundries, and R&D organizations. Its SEMulator3D modeling and analysis platform is used for fast and accurate ‘virtual fabrication’ of advanced manufacturing processes, allowing engineers to understand manufacturing effects early in the development process and reduce time-consuming and costly silicon learning cycles. Its MEMS design solutions are used to develop MEMS-based products for automotive, aerospace, industrial, defense, and consumer electronics applications, including smart phones, tablets, and gaming systems. The company is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina and has offices in California’s Silicon Valley, Waltham, Massachusetts, and Paris, France.
