Ghent, Belgium - August 4, 2026
Luceda Photonics today announced the release of its Luceda E/O Co-Design Integration for Cadence product, directly linking Luceda’s photonic IC (PIC) design platform with Cadence’s gold-standard EPDA ecosystem. The new integration delivers a seamless workflow from photonic synthesis to physical and functional verification, eliminating manual transfer errors and drastically accelerating time-to-market for large-scale co-integrated electronic and photonic ICs.
The silicon photonics market is scaling rapidly, fueled by the need for low-latency, high-bandwidth, and energy-efficient data transmission and switching in AI training factories and hyperscale datacenters. Scale-out, scale-across as well as memory coherent scale-up architectures all drive adoption of optics, ranging from pluggable optics and XPO, to near-packaged optics (NPO) and co-packaged optics (CPO). Meanwhile, advanced interconnect fabrics, optical circuit switching and optical computing make inroads.
All of these technologies demand a shift toward tighter collaboration between traditionally isolated photonic and electronic IC teams, while the rapid pace of their development requires strict time-to-market control. The Luceda E/O Co-Design Integration for Cadence addresses these needs directly. Photonic design teams can now leverage Luceda’s specialized layout, place-and-route, synthesis, and simulation capabilities while maintaining native compatibility with Cadence Virtuoso Studio and Spectre Simulation Platforms and standard workflows trusted by electronic IC teams.
“We’ve seen a clear shift in market demand, particularly in high-performance computing where electronics and photonics must be developed in lockstep,” said Chiara Alessandri, Product Manager at Luceda Photonics. “This integration creates a unified environment where EIC and PIC teams can collaborate closely, eliminating the risks of manual translation or ad hoc workflows. Starting from Cadence PDKs, photonic engine IP is synthesized, functionally and physically verified, and seamlessly integrated into Cadence’s Virtuoso Studio for full system validation.”
“The addition of Luceda to Cadence’s EPDA ecosystem strengthens the capabilities available to our customers,” said Gilles Lamant, distinguished engineer and Virtuoso platform architect at Cadence. “By connecting Luceda's parametric photonic design strengths with Virtuoso Studio, we are giving mutual customers a reliable, verification-backed path to first-time-right silicon production.”
Current key product features include:
- Cadence PDK Import & 1:1 Mapping: Import Cadence PDKs or custom libraries into Luceda with 1:1 parametric mapping of cells, parameters, and metadata. Use these components to synthesize photonic circuits in Luceda.
- Design export from Luceda to Cadence: Export the completed PIC design back to the Cadence ecosystem with 1:1 parametric mapping of cells, parameters, and metadata. Create advanced PIC IP inside Luceda (such as specialized components via Luceda AWG Designer) and effortlessly transfer them to the Cadence ecosystem to finalize the chip design.
- Constraint-Aware PIC Layout: Import design constraints from the EIC (Electronic Integrated Circuit) layout, accounting for them during PIC layout implementation in Luceda.
- Electro-Optical Verification: Execute Layout Versus Schematic (LVS) and Check Against Source (CAS) within the Cadence ecosystem, augmented by early PIC verification with Iris DRC directly inside Luceda.
The Luceda E/O Co-Design Integration for Cadence is available immediately.
Not a Luceda customer yet? Contact us today to learn how you can leverage Luceda tools for advanced PIC design, verification, and data analytics.