Optimizing photonic devices under fabrication variations with deep photonic networks

Abstract

We propose a deep photonic interferometer network architecture for designing fabrication-tolerant photonic devices. Our framework incorporates layers of variation-aware, custom-designed Mach-Zehnder interferometers and virtual wafer maps to optimize broadband power splitters under fabrication variations. Specifically, we demonstrate 50/50 splitters with below 1% deviation from the desired 50/50 ratio, even with up to 15 nm over-etch and under-etch variations. The significantly improved device performance under fabrication-induced changes demonstrates the effectiveness of the deep photonic network architecture in designing fabrication-tolerant photonic devices and showcases the potential for improving circuit performance by optimizing for expected variations in waveguide width.