Design tools and modeling techniques for integrated optics devices: Requirements and applications

The paper presents a short review of the theoretical basics of modeling techniques in integrated optics, essentially mode solving and field propagation, and some of the underlying numerical approaches in short. To meet the requirements of an effective design process of a potentially complex waveguide circuitry different levels of abstraction are used preferably. Thus, the application of tools adequate for the individual problem and the confirmation of results is of special importance. If the waveguide device is to be regarded as a real multi-physics microsystem-as in the case of the simple thermo-optical switch-the use of parametric models is a prevalent procedure to speed up the design process. For different applications, ranging from sensor devices to standard telecom components, specific requirements of the design and the use of standard and individual design tools are discussed.