Author

Prash Kharel

Works on PhotonForge, photonic layout automation, and foundry partnerships.

Prash works on PhotonForge - layout and routing algorithms, DRC verification, and the agentic workflows that turn a pin list and a set of constraints into a foundry-ready chip. He also leads Flexcompute’s partnerships with photonic foundries, which keeps the abstractions honest against real tape-outs.

Recent posts

Case Study Jun 25, 2026

We built a layout viewer for AI agents. Then an agent scaled it to 38 million shapes.

How a goal-driven loop turned PhotonForge's browser LiveViewer from a half-million-shape viewer into a 38-million-shape, 60 FPS tool for humans and agents.

Prash Kharel & Darcy Parker

→

Essay Apr 20, 2026

Learning Auto-Routing by Building: From Brute Force to an Auto-Design Agent

How I learned auto-routing for photonic chips — a failed brute-force attempt, AI as a learning partner, interactive HTML arenas, a PhotonForge router, and an agent that iterates 27 designs in under three minutes.

Prash Kharel

→