What is optoelectronics simulation?

Optoelectronics simulation models semiconductor devices that interact with light, either taking it in, as image sensors, photodetectors and solar cells do, or giving it out, as lasers and LEDs do. It solves the optical behavior, by ray tracing, the transfer matrix method or FDTD, together with the device’s electrical behavior, before anything is fabricated.

How is a CMOS image sensor designed and verified?

In layers. TCAD builds and simulates the pixel, so different pixel structures and geometries can be compared in simulation. SPICE models and simulation then cover the analog readout, followed by custom layout and physical verification. Because image sensors are often 3D-packaged and battery powered, electromigration, IR drop and thermal analysis matter too.

Which optical device types can Silvaco simulate?

CMOS image sensors and charge-coupled devices; solar cells from silicon to thin-film, III-V and perovskite tandems; edge-emitting and VCSEL lasers; LEDs and OLEDs; waveguides and waveguide photodiodes; and photodetectors, including infrared and avalanche detectors. Photonic components such as resonators and couplers are simulated in XSim Photonics.

What is a mode solver used for?

A mode solver finds the optical modes a structure supports, which describe how light is confined and guided in a waveguide or a laser cavity. In laser simulation the transverse modes shape the far-field pattern, and whispering-gallery mode analysis covers lasers whose light circulates around the cavity. Silvaco’s device simulation includes both.

Where does photonics simulation sit relative to the Photonics product family?

This page is the market view: every Silvaco tool that touches an optical device. The Photonics product family is one of them, built around XSim Photonics for full-wave simulation of waveguides, resonators and couplers. Device-level optical simulation, including GPU-accelerated FDTD, runs in Victory Device within TCAD.

Can optical and electrical simulation be run together?

Yes. Device simulation solves the optics, by ray tracing, the transfer matrix method or FDTD, self-consistently with the electrical behavior, so carriers generated by absorbed light, or light emitted by injected current, come out of one simulation. Solar cells, image sensors and lasers all depend on that coupling, which is why they are simulated this way.

Photonics and optoelectronics: image sensors, solar, lasers and silicon photonics

Every optical device, from a camera pixel to a silicon photonics laser, needs its light and its charge designed together. Silvaco simulates both in one coupled run, so you settle the device before you pay for the prototype.

Talk to our Technical Experts Read the optical simulation overview (PDF)

Optoelectronics markets and the problem they share

Optoelectronic devices either take light in or give it out. Image sensors, CCDs and solar cells absorb it; lasers and LEDs emit it. CMOS image sensors are the largest of the four markets, pulled by smartphone cameras and reaching into high-end and scientific imaging. Solar cells answer the demand for renewable energy. And silicon photonics lasers and waveguides exist mostly to move data over fiber.

What ties them together is also what makes them hard: you can't finish the optics and then start on the electronics. Your pixel has to catch light at very high sensitivity inside a battery-powered, often 3D-packaged part, where heat, IR drop and electromigration all eat into the same margin. A laser stands or falls on its optical modes. Chipmakers are taking that problem into simulation: ProMOS chose Victory TCAD in 2025 to develop silicon photonics devices, and Teledyne e2v widened its use of Victory TCAD for CMOS image sensors.

Where Silvaco fits

You start with the physics of one device and finish with a verified image sensor layout. Photonic components get their own electromagnetic simulation alongside.

Device types and the optical methods behind them

Each device couples light and charge its own way, so each gets the optical method that fits it.

CMOS image sensors and CCDs

An image sensor is a pixel array plus its sense and control circuits, tuned for very high sensitivity. You take it from TCAD pixel design through SPICE simulation of the large extracted design to custom layout, then check electromigration, IR drop and thermal behavior for a 3D-packaged part. CIS-process PDKs are available from several foundries. CCDs run on the same TCAD suite.
Solar cells

Model silicon, thin-film and III-V cells, from interdigitated back-contact heterojunction designs to CIGS modules and GaInP/GaAs multi-junction cells with their tunnel junctions. You can take perovskite-silicon tandems through TCAD too, and a TCAD-to-SPICE flow takes a single cell up to panel level.
Lasers, LEDs and silicon photonics

Laser and LED simulation covers edge-emitting and VCSEL lasers, LEDs and the waveguides of a fiber link, plus waveguide photodiodes and infrared and avalanche photodetectors. A mode solver and whispering-gallery mode analysis show how the cavity confines light. Ray tracing, the transfer matrix method, beam propagation and FDTD handle the rest of the optics, solved with the electrical model.

Applications

Four places where coupled simulation earns its keep.

CMOS image sensor development Compare pixel structures in simulation, then design, lay out and verify the readout.
Solar cell device design Test cell structures, silicon to tandem, with the optics and the carriers solved together.
Laser and VCSEL simulation See the optical modes of an edge-emitting or vertical-cavity laser before the first die.
Waveguide and silicon photonics components Simulate waveguides and photonic components before they reach a mask.

Customers and technical reading

Customer · Silicon photonicsApril 2025

ProMOS Technologies

Chose Victory TCAD to develop its silicon photonics devices.

“The adoption of Silvaco’s Victory TCAD tools marks a significant step forward for ProMOS in developing next-gen photonic devices.”

Lynn Lin, Vice President, ProMOS Technologies
Customer · Image sensorsMarch 2022

Teledyne e2v

Took Victory TCAD further into its CMOS image sensor development.

“The Victory TCAD solution enables us to quickly analyze different pixel structures.”

Ana González Márquez, Director of Technology & Product Development, Teledyne e2v
Customer · Infrared detectors

LYNRED

Runs Silvaco TCAD to tune infrared detector performance and shorten development cycles.

“Silvaco’s TCAD Solution is enabling us to lead advances on the infrared detector market by helping us fine-tune our designs and technologies to meet customers’ needs.”

Jocelyn Berhoz, PhD, Technical Expert, LYNRED
Customer · Optical sensors

KODENSHI CORP.

Designs its optical sensor ICs in SmartSpice Pro.

“We decided to use SmartSpice Pro in order to be able to release high functionality, high value-added optical sensors in a short period of time.”

Hiroyuki Fukui, IC Design Division Senior Manager, KODENSHI CORP.
Laser and waveguide simulation in Silvaco TCAD
Presentation · PDFAugust 2023

Optical Simulations Presentation

How Silvaco TCAD simulates devices that emit and absorb light, lasers and waveguides included.
Webinar · Image sensorsNovember 2025

Build Better Pixels Faster: TCAD-Powered Digital Twins for Next-Gen CIS

Use Victory TCAD, Victory DoE and Victory Analytics as a digital twin of your pixel, co-optimizing process, device and optics.
Webinar · Photonic ICsJune 2026

Accelerating Manufacturing-Aware Simulations for Photonic Integrated Circuits with FTCO™ and Digital Twins

Simulate photonic devices as they'll be manufactured, with line-edge roughness, sidewall angle and CD shift, from GDS import to digital twin.
Webinar · SolarJune 2021

Simulation of Silicon and Perovskite Based Tandem Solar Cells Using TCAD

Interdigitated back-contact cells, perovskite cells and silicon-perovskite tandems, modeled in TCAD.
Webinar · Optical methodsApril 2020

Optoelectronic Simulation of Solar Cells, Waveguides, and LEDs

FDTD setup and output, worked through on solar cells, waveguides and LEDs.

More photonics and optoelectronics papers

Read the Simulation Standard

Put your device in front of our application engineers

Which question does your lab keep answering too late? An application engineer will show you where simulation settles it first, on a structure close to yours.

Talk to our Technical Experts Documentation Support and Downloads

Photonics simulation questions

It works out how a semiconductor device that absorbs or emits light will behave, before anyone builds it. An optical method, whether ray tracing, TMM, beam propagation or FDTD, is coupled to the device's electrical physics. That lets you tune image sensors, solar cells, photodetectors, lasers and LEDs in software rather than on test wafers.

In stages. TCAD builds and simulates the pixel, so you can compare pixel structures and geometries before fabrication. SPICE models and circuit simulation cover the analog readout, then custom layout and physical verification finish the design. Sensors often sit in 3D packages on battery power, so electromigration, IR drop and thermal analysis belong in the flow too.

CMOS image sensors and CCDs. Solar cells, from silicon and thin-film to III-V and perovskite tandems. Lasers, both edge-emitting and VCSEL, plus LEDs and OLEDs. Waveguides and waveguide photodiodes. Photodetectors, including infrared and avalanche types. Passive photonic components get electromagnetic simulation of their own.

A mode solver finds the optical modes a structure can support, which tells you how light is confined and guided in a waveguide or a laser cavity. For lasers, those modes set the far-field pattern, and whispering-gallery mode analysis covers cavities where light circulates around the edge. Silvaco's device simulation includes both.

Photonics simulation is the wider job: any device where light and charge meet, pixels and lasers included, usually simulated at device level in TCAD. The Photonics product family covers one part of it, the electromagnetic simulation of photonic components such as waveguides. Some devices need both.

Yes, and for most optical devices that's the point. Device simulation solves the optics self-consistently with the electrical physics, so carriers generated by absorbed light, or photons emitted by injected current, come out of the same run. Solar cells, image sensors and lasers all depend on that coupling.