Keysight Enables End-to-End Electrical-Optical-Electrical Simulation for Data Center Design

Engineer performing end-to-end electro-optic (EOE) simulations in Keysight ADS Photonic Designer to analyze photonic integrated circuits, electronic interfaces, and system-level signal integrity for next-generation high-speed optical interconnects.

Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS) has introduced an Electrical-Optical-Electrical (EOE) simulation solution in ADS 2026. Engineers can now simulate electrical-to-optical-to-electrical signal chains within a single design environment. This capability is increasingly important as AI infrastructure and high-performance computing drive demand for faster optical links. This type of analysis is essential for setting architecture and evaluating performance.

By 2029, 87% of hyperscale optical transceivers will operate at 800Gbps or higher, with 1.6Tbps and 3.2Tbps on the horizon. With optical links connecting CPUs, GPUs, and high-speed SerDes interfaces, teams need to model interactions across electrical and optical domains. Legacy simulation workflows handle these separately, requiring the results from different tools to be manually stitched together, potentially missing cross-domain effects that impact system performance.

The breakthrough EOE capability in ADS 2026 enables engineers to simulate the complete signal path, from transmitters through optical and photonic circuits to electrical receivers, in a unified workflow. The solution leverages Keysight’s High Speed Digital workflow with Keysight Photonic Designer. By simulating the mixed-domain signal chain before hardware implementation, teams can evaluate electrical and optical design tradeoffs and assess signal integrity against high-speed standards earlier in the design cycle.

Key Features

• Detect signal integrity issues across electrical and optical domains before prototyping: Simulate high-speed SerDes digital channels and photonics IC behavior together, catching cross-domain issues that surface only when both domains are modeled simultaneously.
• Simulate bidirectional optical links as they behave in the real world: Full-duplex optical simulation captures forward and backward signal propagation within an EOE channel, a capability not previously available.
• Assess nonlinear effects across multiple wavelengths for multi-lane interconnects: Wavelength division multiplexingsupport within EOE simulation flows lets engineers evaluate how optical nonlinearities affect performance across wavelengths, a growing concern as 800G and 1.6T optical links use multiple wavelengths simultaneously on the same waveguide. These modulated wavelengths and non-linearities can be simulated together as a system.
• Obtain a realistic view of system-level signal quality: Noise modeling spans the electrical and optical domains simultaneously, enabling engineers to assess performance under realistic conditions rather than modeling each domain in isolation.
• Catch nonlinear effects before they reach hardware: Modulator bias-dependent and large-signal nonlinear effects are captured within end-to-end simulations.
• Make electrical-optical design tradeoffs in one workflow: Patented multi-domain co-simulation bridges the electrical channel and optical envelope simulators, eliminating the need to move between separate tools to evaluate tradeoffs.

Beyond system-level EOE simulation, ADS 2026 covers the full design flow from system down to component optimization. Through PDK support at the circuit level and Keysight RSoft integration at the component level, engineers get a true representation of photonic IC behavior, with no disconnect between the real chip and system-level simulation.

Key Quote

“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,” said Niels Fache, Senior Vice President, Keysight.

Key Links

Application Note: EOE Simulations

Web Page: Keysight ADS 2026 Update 2

Web Page: Keysight Photonic Design Automation Software

Web Page: Keysight RSoft Photonic Design Tools

Webinar: End-to-End Co-Design for Ethernet: Bridging Photonics and Electronics with EOE Simulation

Video: End-to-End EOE Simulations