Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) Design Solutions

Connect photonic device, PIC, electronic, packaging, and system-level design decisions for emerging optical I/O architectures.

Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) Design Solutions

Design Co-Packaged Optics Systems with the System in View

AI and high-performance computing architectures are increasing the demand for bandwidth while placing greater pressure on power, latency, and interconnect performance. Co-packaged optics brings optical engines closer to switching and compute silicon, shortening the high-speed electrical path between the electronic and optical domains.

This architectural shift connects photonic devices, PICs, electrical interconnects, packaging, thermal behavior, and optical-link performance in one interdependent design problem. Keysight solutions help engineering teams evaluate these interactions earlier across device, circuit, package, and system design.

Why Co-Packaged Optics Matters

Address cross-domain design challenges while increasing bandwidth density and reducing power, loss, and development risk.

Connect Photonic and Electronic Design

Evaluate how photonic devices, PIC circuits, electrical interfaces, and optical links interact across the design.

Evaluate Packaging and Interconnect Effects

Analyze package and interconnect structures that influence electrical, optical, and system-level performance.

Account for Thermal Sensitivity

Evaluate how temperature changes may affect photonic and electronic behavior across operating conditions.

Improve Signal and Power Performance

Assess signal integrity, power integrity, coupling loss, and system efficiency earlier in development.

Key Design Challenges in Co-Packaged Optics

Evaluate the optical, electrical, packaging, and system tradeoffs that determine CPO performance.

Bringing the optical engine closer to the switching or compute silicon shortens the high-speed electrical path, but it also connects the optical, electrical, packaging, thermal, and system domains more closely. Changes in one domain can affect performance across the others, making system-level evaluation essential.

In CPO, the photonic device, PIC, optical link, package, electronics, and system can no longer be evaluated as isolated domains.

 

3D Illustration of Co Packaged Optics

Address CPO Challenges Across the Design Flow

Move seamlessly from photonic device design to optical coupling, PIC development, and system validation. 

Assess Link and Architecture Performance

Use system and circuit simulation to investigate how photonic and electronic behavior affects the performance of optical links and transceiver architectures.

  • Electro-optical-electrical link behavior
  • Transmitter and receiver interactions
  • Wavelength-division multiplexing architectures
  • Component impairments and nonlinear behavior represented in system models
  • Design tradeoffs before hardware integration
CPO System Diagram

Connect Device, Circuit, and Layout

Combine RSoft device simulation with ADS Photonic Designer to create and refine photonic building blocks, design PIC circuits and layouts, and evaluate electro-optical-electrical behavior.

  • Create and optimize custom photonic devices
  • Use device results in PIC and electro-optical circuit simulations
  • Develop schematic and layout-based PIC designs
  • Work with foundry PDKs and model formats
  • Evaluate how component behavior affects circuit and system response
PIC Co-Design Graphic

Evaluate Fiber-to-PIC Coupling

CPO architectures depend on efficient coupling between fibers, coupling optics, and on-chip photonic structures. Keysight tools can analyze important parts of this optical path:

  • Use CODE V to design and analyze coupling optics and larger free-space propagation regions.
  • Use RSoft to simulate fiber-to-chip interfaces, waveguides, grating couplers, edge couplers, and other photonic structures.
  • Evaluate coupling efficiency, alignment sensitivity, and tolerances within the appropriate tool and model.
Optical I/O on a laptop

Analyze High-Speed Package Interconnects

Use Keysight electronic design and electromagnetic analysis tools to evaluate package and interconnect structures that influence CPO performance.

  • Package interconnects, vias, bumps, and substrate structures
  • High-speed channel behavior
  • Signal integrity and power integrity considerations
  • Electrical and packaging tradeoffs that affect the integrated architecture
Package Interconnects Analysis

Design Critical Photonic Components

Use RSoft Photonic Device Tools to model and optimize photonic structures used in optical interconnects and PICs.

  • Grating and edge couplers
  • Spot-size converters and inverse tapers
  • Silicon photonic waveguides and compact bends
  • Modulators and photodetector structures
  • Photonic crystal, metasurface, and metalens structures

Available methods include FDTD, BPM, FEM, EME, RCWA, topology optimization, inverse design, and multi-parameter optimization, depending on the device and physics required.

Explore Optical Design Services
CPO Design Workflow Optimized

Optimize Your CPO Design Workflow

Apply topology optimization, inverse design, parameter scanning, distributed computing, and GPU acceleration to improve structures such as couplers, compact bends, and wavelength-selective devices. Keysight optical and electronic design experts can also help define a practical workflow for photonic components, PIC circuits, package interconnects, optical alignment, and system evaluation.

  • Photonic component simulation and optimization
  • PIC design and electro-optical circuit simulation
  • Package and high-speed interconnect analysis
  • Optical coupling and alignment studies
  • System architecture and link evaluation
  • Custom workflow and model development

Accelerate Development with Optical Design Experts

Whether you're evaluating new optical interconnect architectures or optimizing an existing PIC platform, Keysight's optical engineering experts can help with: 

  • Optical coupling design 
  • PIC optimization 
  • Fiber alignment analysis 
  • System architecture evaluation 
  • Simulation workflow development 
  • Custom photonic modeling services   
ODE Engineers

Discover CPO Resources

Connect CPO design decisions earlier.

Explore how Keysight photonic, electronic, packaging, and system design solutions can help your team evaluate critical CPO tradeoffs before committing to fabrication and hardware integration.