picwriter 0.5

Mask generation tool

Linux/OS: [](https://travis-ci.org/DerekK88/PICwriter) Windows: [](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/DerekK88/PICwriter) Documentation: [](http://picwriter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest) [](https://github.com/ambv/black)

# PICwriter README Picwriter (Photonic-Integrated-Circuit Writer) is a [Python](https://www.python.org/) module, built above the [gdspy](https://github.com/heitzmann/gdspy) module, aimed at simplifying the process of designing complex masks for photonic integrated circuits through a prebuilt library of easy-to-implement PCells. Supported blocks currently include: * waveguides (strip, slot, and sub-wavelength grating) * grating couplers (straight and focusing) * tapers * strip to slot waveguide mode converters * directional couplers * adiabatic couplers * spiral structures (auto-generated from specified waveguide length) * 1x2 multi-mode interferometers * 2x2 multi-mode interferometers * ring & disk resonators with automatic bus waveguide wrapping * distributed bragg reflectors * Mach-Zehnder interferometers * alignment markers (for photolithography and ebeam lithography) * metal routes * bond pads

Stay tuned, more components are coming soon! In the meantime, check out the documentation for this project at [picwriter.readthedocs.io](http://picwriter.readthedocs.io).

## Features The ultimate goal of this module is to reduce the time required to generate photonic integrated circuit mask designs, by extending the functionality of the gdspy library. * High-level specification of common building blocks for photonic-integrated circuits * Fabrication specific masks. Specify the photoresist type (‘+’ or ‘-’) and fabrication type (such as ‘ETCH’) and PICwriter will generate the appropriate mask files for electron-beam or photolithography. * All library components are subclasses of the gdspy Cell class, so gdspy Cell features such as rotation(), copy(), flatten(), get_bounding_box(), etc. are all supported.

## Installation

### Dependencies: With a working version of python, all dependencies should be automatically installed through the instructions below.

• [Python](http://www.python.org/) (tested with versions 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 for Linux/OS, tested with versions 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 2.7-x64, 3.4-x64, 3.5-x64, 3.6-x64 for Windows.)

• [gdspy](https://github.com/heitzmann/gdspy) (tested with versions 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6)

• [Numpy](http://numpy.scipy.org/)

• [SciPy](https://www.scipy.org/)

• [Python-future](http://python-future.org/) (only for Python 2)

### Linux / OS X Both options should automatically install all dependencies (like gdspy, numpy, etc.).

Option 1: using [pip](https://docs.python.org/3/installing/):

`sh pip install picwriter `

Option 2: download the source from [github](https://github.com/DerekK88/picwriter) and build/install with:

`sh python setup.py install `

### Windows

The best way of obtaining the library is by installing the prebuilt binaries.

• First, go to the [gdspy appveyor project page](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/heitzmann/gdspy), then click the python environment that matches your python version and processor type. For example, if you have a 64-bit processor with Python version 3.5 (you can check by running python –version in a command prompt) then you would click ‘PYTHON=C:Python35-x64’. Then, click the Artifacts tab and download the corresponding distgdspy-1.X.X.X.whl wheel file.

• Open up a command prompt (type cmd in the search bar), navigate to your downloads, then install via:

`sh pip install dist\gdspy-1.X.X.X.whl `

• Next, install the PICwriter library by following the same procedure as before at the [picwriter appveyor page](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/DerekK88/picwriter) to install the corresponding prebuilt picwriter .whl file.

• In a command prompt, navigate to your downloads and install with pip:

`sh pip install dist\picwriter-1.X.X.X.whl `

Building from source is also possible. For installing gdspy, an appropriate build environment is required for compilation of the C extension modules.