Semiconductor Finite Elements for Integrated Optics

Abstract

The increased use of semiconductors in integrated optics has lead to a requirement for accurate device modelling and CAD tools. Among the numerical techniques available the Finite Element Method (FEM) has been used to analyse optical [1,2] and electronic [3] situations independently. In this paper we describe the first attempts to solve the electro-optical effects in semiconductor waveguides directly using finite elements. The software suite consists of two solver packages. OPTIC is a general purpose waveguide solver developed at GEC Research [4] and QUADS is an adaptive mesh semiconductor solver [3,5]. This paper summarizes the formulations for these analyses and the interfacing implemented and presents preliminary results.