Keysight Brings Radio Frequency and Photonic Design Together for Tower Semiconductor

Keysight Technologies (NYSE: KEYS) has certified ADS Photonic Designer to support Tower Semiconductor’s PH18 silicon photonics process design kits.

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Designers can simulate the complete signal path across electronic and optical domains before tapeout

SANTA ROSA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS) has certified Advanced Design System (ADS) Photonic Designer to support Tower Semiconductor’s PH18 silicon photonics process design kits (PDKs). Engineers can now work from schematic through simulation and layout in one environment. Teams already working on high-speed digital and radio frequency (RF) projects in ADS can use Tower processes to design photonic integrated circuits (PICs) or co-design them with electronic circuits in the same tool.

As optical link rates climb to 1600G and beyond, electrical and optical interactions impacted by interdependent physics determine performance. Verification must cover the PIC and the system in which it will operate, which has meant design teams working in separate tools to transfer different data and translate models, limiting what can be simulated. Integrating electrical and optical work removes that.

Tower RF processes have run on Keysight ADS for more than a decade, with circuit design and simulation in ADS, electromagnetic analysis in RFPro, and electrothermal simulation for silicon germanium power amplifiers. Engineers can design PH18 photonic circuits in the same schematic as their high-performance electronic circuits. The PDK provides physics-based models of photonic components, which designers integrate directly into electrical-optical-electrical (EOE) simulations to predict real-world device, component, and system performance.

ADS provides design rule check (DRC) compliant photonic layout devices and designer level layout versus schematic (LVS) checks, so performance and physical issues surface before fabrication. Foundry level verification and tapeout are completed using Tower tools.

Dr. Samir Chaudhry, Vice President of Customer Design Enablement and Reliability, Tower Semiconductor, said: “The convergence of electronics and photonics for applications such as CPO and NPO is driving a new generation of high-bandwidth, low-power communication systems. By bringing Tower’s PH18 silicon photonics foundry technology into the Keysight ADS environment, we are enabling designers to model, simulate, and optimize complete electro-optical systems with greater accuracy and efficiency. This collaboration builds on our decade’s long partnership with Keysight and helps our customers shorten development cycles, reduce design iterations, and accelerate the deployment of advanced silicon photonics solutions.”

Niels Faché, Senior Vice President, Design Engineering Software, Keysight, said: “Photonic integrated circuits are becoming central to high-speed data communications, and the cost of getting the design wrong keeps rising. A general-purpose simulation gives you a plausible answer, but to get one that you can act on, the models have to be tied to the larger system of what is being fabricated. Working with Tower Semiconductor reflects our long-standing commitment to a unified workflow for electronic and photonic engineering.”

The Tower PH18 PDK for ADS Photonic Designer is available now.

Resources

• Product page: Photonic Design Automation Software
• Product page: Connect Device Physics to System Performance
• Application note: End-to-End Electrical-Optical-Electrical Flow in Keysight ADS | Keysight
• Product page: Tower Semiconductor Worldwide Design Enablement

About Keysight Technologies

Keysight (NYSE: KEYS) serves technology innovators as a mission-critical design enablement partner for the world’s most complex engineering challenges. By connecting market-leading design, emulation, and test solutions across the full life cycle, Keysight helps engineering teams accelerate innovation, reduce risk, and bring new technologies to market faster. Customers across AI infrastructure, communications, industrial automation, aerospace and defense, automotive, semiconductor, and general electronics rely on Keysight to bridge virtual design and physical reality, enabling confident decisions earlier. Learn more at www.keysight.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261109345043/en/

Keysight Media Contacts

Mark Price
Americas
mark.price@keysight.com

Fusako Dohi
Asia
fusako_dohi@keysight.com

Jenny Gallacher
Europe
jenny.gallacher@keysight.com

Source: Keysight Technologies, Inc.

Key Terms

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EOE stands for "Equal Opportunity Employer," a short declaration companies often include in job postings and press materials to say they do not discriminate in hiring or employment based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, or other protected characteristics. For investors, EOE signals a company’s commitment to fair workplace practices and legal compliance, which can reduce risk of costly discrimination lawsuits and help attract diverse talent—similar to a store advertising it serves everyone equally to widen its customer base.

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LVS is commonly used as a stock ticker symbol — a short code that uniquely identifies a company’s shares on a public exchange. For investors, a ticker is like a license plate for a stock: it’s the quick label used to look up prices, news, trading volume and ownership information, so seeing “LVS” in a market report tells you exactly which company’s securities and market activity are being discussed.

tapeout technical

Tapeout is the moment a chip designer sends the finished circuit design to the semiconductor factory to begin making physical chips, like handing a final blueprint to a builder. For investors, tapeout matters because it marks the transition from design to manufacturing, signaling progress toward products that can generate revenue while also implying upcoming costs, schedules and technical risks that can affect a company’s financial outlook.