What Optical-Electrical Simulation Means for High-Speed Links
Optical electrical simulation is the process of modeling a complete signal path that spans electronic transmitters and receivers, optical or photonic components, and the physical channel between them within a single, unified environment so that engineers can predict signal integrity, timing, and nonlinear effects before building hardware. Keysight’s new Electrical-Optical-Electrical (EOE) simulation capability in ADS 2026 puts this definition into practice. Instead of piecing together separate SerDes IC design tools and photonics simulation tools, engineers can now follow one end-to-end workflow. This matters as optical links move from the network edge into connections between CPUs, GPUs, and high-speed SerDes interfaces used in AI infrastructure and high-performance computing. According to Keysight Technologies, the ADS 2026 EOE flow models the full signal path from electrical transmitters, through optical and photonic circuits, and back into electrical receivers in a single design environment.
Closing the Historical Gap Between Electrical and Optical Domains
For years, high-speed link engineers have worked in fragmented flows: SPICE or channel simulators on the electrical side and separate photonics simulation tools for the optical path. Results had to be exported, approximated, and manually re-imported, making it difficult to see how driver equalization, optical modulation, and receiver electronics interacted as one system. The EOE simulation in ADS 2026 closes this historical gap by combining Keysight’s High Speed Digital workflow with Keysight Photonic Designer. That means SerDes channel models, photonics IC behavior, and fiber or waveguide effects are all treated as one continuous signal path. This unified signal path modeling lets teams examine electrical and optical trade-offs earlier, such as whether to improve an equalizer, re-bias a modulator, or change a wavelength plan, before committing to silicon layouts or photonics masks.
Why Complexity in SerDes and Photonics IC Design Demands EOE
The push toward faster links is driving a new level of design complexity. By 2029, 87% of hyperscale optical transceivers are expected to operate at 800 Gbps or higher, with 1.6 Tbps and 3.2 Tbps link speeds also emerging. These data rates demand tighter integration between SerDes IC design and photonics IC design, as package parasitics, optical nonlinearities, and multi-lane crosstalk all interact. Traditional, split-domain workflows make such cross-domain effects hard to evaluate. With EOE simulation, engineers can detect signal integrity issues that appear only when electrical and optical models run together, such as distortion from modulator nonlinearity that pushes a receiver over its jitter budget. This supports more confident architectural choices for on-board optics, co-packaged optics, and advanced SerDes that must operate across several optical reaches and modulation formats.
Unified Workflows for Multi-Wavelength and Bidirectional Links
Modern optical links rarely consist of a single, unidirectional lane. Hyperscale systems depend on multi-wavelength, multi-lane interconnects and, in some cases, full‑duplex links. The ADS 2026 EOE capability addresses this by supporting bidirectional optical channel models and wavelength division multiplexing in the same environment used for digital channel analysis. Engineers can simulate forward and backward propagation in one model to understand reflections, back-scattering, and their impact on receiver performance. They can also assess nonlinear effects across multiple wavelengths in dense wavelength division multiplexing schemes. This helps answer questions that previously required multiple iterations across separate tools: whether to adjust launch power, change wavelength spacing, or reallocate equalization between the SerDes IC and the photonics IC. The net effect is fewer design spins and faster time-to-market for complex optical-electrical subsystems.
EOE in the Broader Evolution of Engineering Simulation
End-to-end optical electrical simulation is emerging alongside a wider shift in engineering software toward more integrated and AI-aware workflows. Events such as Engineering.com’s Design and Simulation Week 2026 highlight how multiphysics, electronic design automation, and AI are converging. While ADS 2026’s EOE flow focuses on high-speed links, it fits the same pattern: combining disciplines once handled by separate tools into cohesive environments. In parallel, other sessions cover agentic engineering, GPU-accelerated multiphysics, and AI-driven optimization, reinforcing the idea that data generated in one part of the workflow should inform decisions everywhere else. For SerDes and photonics engineers, unified EOE simulation is a practical expression of this trend, turning fragmented optical and electrical modeling into a connected, system-level process that better matches how real hardware behaves.