The collaboration is reported to dramatically speed chip-to-chip and machine-to-machine communication for cloud, datacenters, high performance computing, and AI chips.
PITTSBURGH—In April, Ansys reported it is collaborating with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) on multiphysics software for TSMC’s Compact Universal Photonic Engines (COUPE) platform. The two companies are working “to deliver a high-fidelity multiphysics solution to address design challenges for artificial intelligence (AI), datacenter, cloud, and high-performance computing (HPC) chips,” Ansys said in a release.
In the release, Ansys described COUPE as “a cutting-edge silicon photonics (SiPh) integration system and co-packaged optics platform that mitigates coupling loss while significantly accelerating chip-to-chip and machine-to-machine communication.”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s COUPE, along with Ansys multiphysics software that is integrated with Synopsys’s 3DIC Compiler unified exploration-to-signoff platform, are reported to enable “the next generation of silicon photonics and co-packaged optics designs for applications in AI, datacenter, cloud, and HPC communications.” The collaborative work spans multiple areas, including fiber-to-chip coupling, integrated electronic-photonic chip design, power integrity verification, high-frequency electromagnetic analysis, and critical thermal management, Ansys said in the release.
The COUPE silicon photonics platform integrates multiple electrical integrated circuits (ICs) with a photonic IC and fiber optic connections into a single package. These include Ansys Zemax™ for optical input/output simulation, Ansys Lumerical™ for photonic simulation, Ansys RedHawk-SC™ and Ansys Totem™ for multi-die power integrity signoff, Ansys RaptorX™ to model high-frequency electromagnetic analysis between dies, and Ansys RedHawk-SC Electrothermal™ for vital thermal management of the multi-die heterogenous system.
Lumerical allows custom Verilog-A models for electronic photonic circuit simulations, which are said to work seamlessly with the TSMC Modeling Interface (TMI). They are co-designed with TSMC’s Process Design Kit (PDK), Ansys said.
“By providing a good silicon photonics integration system, we can address both critical issues of energy efficiency and computing performance to support the explosive growth in data transmission that comes with the AI boom,” said Dan Kochpatcharin, head of the design infrastructure management division at TSMC, in the release. “We have aligned closely with our Open Innovation Platform® (OIP) partners like Ansys to provide our customers with a solution to the design challenges in this breakthrough technology, enabling their designs to achieve a new level of performance and energy efficiency.”
John Lee, vice president and general manager of the semiconductor, electronics, and optics business unit at Ansys, said, “Ansys’s multiphysics platform for TSMC’s COUPE technology underscores our focus on delivering the most comprehensive multiphysics portfolio with the best solution for every need. Ansys is a leader in delivering a deep and broad portfolio of integrated multiphysics simulation solutions and platforms. Together, TSMC and Ansys are enabling the next wave of technological innovation.”