Keysight Technologies introduced a new Electrical-Optical-Electrical (EOE) simulation capability in ADS 2026, enabling engineering teams to model complete signal paths spanning electrical transmitters, photonic integrated circuits, optical channels, and electrical receivers within a unified design environment. The company said the capability addresses growing complexity in AI infrastructure and hyperscale networking systems where electrical and optical behaviors increasingly interact at 800Gbps, 1.6Tbps, and future 3.2Tbps interconnect speeds.
The new workflow combines Keysight’s High Speed Digital simulation environment with its Photonic Designer platform to support co-simulation across electrical and optical domains. Traditionally, design teams used separate tools for photonic and electronic simulation, manually stitching results together and potentially overlooking nonlinear or cross-domain effects. Keysight said its unified EOE workflow allows engineers to detect signal integrity issues earlier in the design cycle, before committing to hardware or silicon tape-outs.
ADS 2026 also introduces support for bidirectional optical link simulation, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) analysis for multi-lane optical interconnects, and system-level noise modeling across both optical and electrical domains. The platform captures modulator bias-dependent nonlinearities and large-signal effects while supporting co-design tradeoff analysis between SerDes channels and photonic components. Keysight said the software integrates with foundry PDKs at the circuit level and with RSoft photonic design tools for component-level modeling, enabling more accurate representation of photonic IC behavior throughout the design flow.
• Targets next-generation AI infrastructure and hyperscale optical interconnects operating at 800Gbps, 1.6Tbps, and beyond
• Enables full end-to-end electrical-to-optical-to-electrical simulation in one workflow
• Supports bidirectional optical link modeling and WDM nonlinear analysis
• Integrates Keysight ADS, Photonic Designer, and RSoft photonic tools
• Designed to improve early-stage signal integrity analysis before hardware implementation
• Addresses co-design requirements for CPUs, GPUs, high-speed SerDes, and optical fabrics
Niels Fache, Senior Vice President at Keysight, said: “AI infrastructure depends on 800 Gbps and 1.6 Tbps optical links to move data at scale. At these speeds, electrical and optical performance can no longer be modeled separately. With ADS 2026, engineering teams now have the ability to simulate those interactions before committing to silicon.”
🌐 Analysis: The announcement reflects a broader shift toward tightly integrated electro-optical co-design workflows as AI clusters scale beyond traditional copper interconnect limitations. As hyperscalers move toward 800G and 1.6T optical fabrics, design verification increasingly requires simultaneous modeling of SerDes, DSPs, photonic ICs, and optical channel impairments. Vendors across the ecosystem, including Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems, and specialized photonics EDA firms, are expanding support for photonic-electronic co-simulation as co-packaged optics and advanced optical interconnect architectures move closer to deployment in AI infrastructure.
🌐 The development also aligns with industry momentum toward photonic integration and higher-density optical fabrics for AI scale-out networking. As switch ASICs and accelerator clusters push toward 224G SerDes and future 448G signaling, accurate end-to-end modeling of nonlinear optical effects, thermal impacts, and multi-wavelength interactions becomes increasingly important for reducing design risk and accelerating deployment timelines.
🌐 We’re tracking the latest developments in networking silicon. Follow our ongoing coverage at: https://convergedigest.com/category/semiconductors/
