Validation of the building-block-based approach for the design of photonic integrated circuits

The concept of building block and circuit-model simulation in photonics is presented and discussed, pointing out their key role in a generic foundry approach. Circuit simulation based on building-block approach, in addition and alternative to the classical electromagnetic analysis, emerges as the most useful framework for a deep exploitation of the potentiality of photonics for the large-scale integration of complex circuits. The reliability of building-block-based design and simulation of photonics integrated circuits is discussed and comparisons between simulated and measured behavior of three challenging test circuits are used as proof of concept of the validity of this approach.