Dash8400: The intention of my earlier post was to illustrate this, and Rainer kindly pointed out that the PDK could've been used for the AOC....

I think I was much too reluctant in my post: You desperately need a PDK if you want any foundry to process your stuff. So, yes, yes, yes, the PDK is vivid and alive, it is actively used and I am certain, experience from lab and foundry processes – including VCSEL experience – are continuously fed back into the PDK's component models so that future device simulation results will match reality better.

They just don't sell the PDK. Yet.