1. Rigorous Coupled-Wave Analysis (RCWA) Solver Enhancements
3 new enhancements in RCWA GUI
(1) New Electromagnetic Fields Monitor
New monitor to compute the EH fields and get a visual for different directions, for validation and understand your metalens design.
(2) New non-orthogonal unit cell
(2-1) Patterning with 2 axis for metalens
(2-2) Less meta-atoms, easier to fabricate
(2-3) Less meshing ->faster simulations
(3) New data export capacity
(3-1) One-click fast export RCWA results to JSON file for the Lumerical Sub-Wavelength Model
(3-2) Simulate diffraction gratings, coatings in Ansys Optics
2. Metalens Core Technology
We made substantial performance improvements to our current metalens workflow and managed to reduce the memory overhead to handle centimeter-scale metalenses.
(1) support for distributed sweeps via job manager, new EH fields monitor and non-orthogonal unit cell
(2) 10-100x performance improvements for very large lenses so we can now handle metalenses with diameters up to 25mm.
(3) Now export lighter GDS files for foundry manufacturing.
Improved approach in RCWA works with the stitched field method and the consistent local periodicity approximation. It can handle large diameter metalenses with slowly varying meta-atoms, much faster and with correct accuracy.
Can run local or remote with Lumerical remote python API
3. Anisotropic Dielectric Permittivity Materials in CHARGE
The DC relative dielectric permittivity definition for electrical materials (semiconductors, alloys, and insulators) in CHARGE now supports diagonal anisotropy
(1) Correct electrostatic field distribution when highly anisotropic materials are present, such as Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3)
(2) Lithium Niobate material properties for different crystal cuts added to the Material Library
(3) Key application: Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) electro-optic modulators
(3-1) Potential technology solution to enable 100G+ modulators for PIC
(3-2) New Application Gallery example
Reference
A. Mercante, S. Shi, P. Yao, L. Xie, R. Weikle, and D. Prather, "Thin film lithium niobate electro-optic modulator with terahertz operating bandwidth," Opt. Express 26, 14810-14816 (2018).
4. Variational Method for Excitons in MQW
New faster, computationally less intensive calculations for finding exciton energies
(1) Supports exciton absorption calculation from variational ground state energy
(2) Enables support for SiGe material (e.g., SiGe APDs)
5. New CML Compiler User Interface
New user-friendly GUI with intuitive controls and menu options
(1) Status window highlights the build/QA status of each element in the library
(2) Easily deploy new models, rename and delete existing elements with the click of a button
(3) Output window prints log messages from the engine directly on the GUI
6. CML Compiler and EPDA Enhancements
(1) New and improved Verilog-A models
(1-1) New parameterized ring modulator model supports radius, coupling length, and coupling gap as Pcell parameters
(1-2) Improved photodetector model includes shot noise and captures inter-channel crosstalk between baseband carriers in simulations.
(2) Generated Verilog-A models now support SPECTRE 21
(3) Updated netlist extraction function of Virtuoso-INTERCONNECT co-simulation to handle netlists for complex, hierarchical circuits with parameterization
7. Second Harmonic Generation Waveguide Model for INTERCONNECT
New non-linear waveguide primitive in INTERCONNECT models second harmonic generation
(1) Enables modeling of nonlinear waveguides made with LiNbO3
(2) Supports both short pulse and CW pump operations
(3) Support tuning with periodic poling
8. Layer Builder Boolean Operations
New feature in Multiphysics suite supports operations between any mask layers
(geometry or doping)
(1) Natural mapping between mask layers and geometry: Mask layers defined by foundry are usually combined using Boolean operations to construct final mask for fabrication
(2) Enables cases where a combination of multiple mask layers determines the geometry
9. New Wizard for Virtuoso Layout Integration in Finite Element IDE
New Wizard for Virtuoso Lumerical FE-IDE direct bridge
(1) Layout Geometry Wizard helps customer to easily configure the integration
(2) Enables optimization of active devices using Multiphysics solvers (CHARGE, HEAT and FEEM) together with Cadence Virtuoso for the layout
10. Quantum Photonic Circuit Simulation with INTERCONNECT
Performance improvements and 2 new examples for qINTERCONNECT’
that simulates quantum behavior in PIC, accounting for imperfections and losses.
(1) New application examples:
(1-1) Realistic non-classical photon source models, reporting squeezing level and biphoton wavefunction: Spontaneous Four-wave mixing in microring resonator
(1-2) Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) measurement with (partially) indistinguishable non-classical sources
(2) Performance improvements: Double the number of channels or frequencies with the same simulation run time
(2-1) Key application: Higher frequency resolution of the biphoton wavefunction for HOM measurement
11. GPU Acceleration for FDTD
New FDTD simulation performance acceleration using single GPU
(1) GPU speeds up FDTD simulations with parallelization on graphic card. This enables scientists, and engineers working on PIC and Metalens to run their simulations in a fraction of the time and make discoveries faster. A single GPU Nvidia RTX4000 can offer a 6x speedup versus a 12-Core CPU
(2) Reduced hardware costs : GPU RTX4000 is $950 versus Intel 6226 12-Core CPU is $1180.
(3) GPU simulation mode runs on a constrained set of sources (Gaussian beam, Dipole, Mode), monitors (Time, DFT, Mode expansion) and materials behaviors compatible on a single GPU.
(4) Users must opt-in by enabling an option that changes how materials are handled and toggling their resource configuration from CPU to GPU.
12. Remote Python API
The Python API can now work in remote for all Lumerical tools
(1) Get started right away with your current Lumerical Python scripting skills - based on the existing Python InteropAPI
(2) Interactive scripting solution on your laptop, run simulations on cluster, send jobs to HPC
(3) Safe connection with a remote layer using SSL
(4) Download the Dockerfiles included with Lumerical for Linux, build a Container then deploy the Remote Server on Linux.
(5) Any laptop can connect to that session, client can be Windows or Linux.
13. Ansys Optics Launcher
The Optics Launcher is now available with the 3 optics software
(1) Users can get started with real simulation examples and product trials a click away and directly from inside the product launcher.
(2) Links you to articles for more in-depth insight instructions.
(3) Get started right away with product evaluation at the time you want with a 30-day trial license for Lumerical, Speos, and OpticStudio.
14. CMOS Image Sensor Workflow Enhancements
Enhancements to end-to-end camera workflow
(1) FDTD now includes the marginal rays from OpticStudio in the pixel simulation for more accurate calculation of the quantum efficiency.
(2) The EQE vs subpixel position and wavelength is combined with Speos light exposure and post-processed by the new Speos Sensor System to see all intermediaries' electronics images and final image.
(3) Recent general pixel architectures (e.g., quad pixels, corner pixels) are available to get you started
15. MQW and RCWA in Ansys optiSLang (Beta)
MQW and RCWA solvers are now available in the Lumerical connector in OptiSLang
(1) Automate Multiphysics simulation workflows and benefit from the state-of-the-art sensitivity analysis and optimization algorithms available in optiSLang
(2) Optimize edge-emitting lasers, EAMs, and uLEDs by driving your Multiphysics design workflow involving MQW solver with optiSLang
(3) Optimize photonic crystal or metalens design with RCWA utilizing the power of optiSLang
1. Rigorous Coupled-Wave Analysis (RCWA) Solver Enhancements
3 new enhancements in RCWA GUI
(1) New Electromagnetic Fields Monitor
New monitor to compute the EH fields and get a visual for different directions, for validation and understand your metalens design.
(2) New non-orthogonal unit cell
(2-1) Patterning with 2 axis for metalens
(2-2) Less meta-atoms, easier to fabricate
(2-3) Less meshing ->faster simulations
(3) New data export capacity
(3-1) One-click fast export RCWA results to JSON file for the Lumerical Sub-Wavelength Model
(3-2) Simulate diffraction gratings, coatings in Ansys Optics
2. Metalens Core Technology
We made substantial performance improvements to our current metalens workflow and managed to reduce the memory overhead to handle centimeter-scale metalenses.
(1) support for distributed sweeps via job manager, new EH fields monitor and non-orthogonal unit cell
(2) 10-100x performance improvements for very large lenses so we can now handle metalenses with diameters up to 25mm.
(3) Now export lighter GDS files for foundry manufacturing.
Improved approach in RCWA works with the stitched field method and the consistent local periodicity approximation. It can handle large diameter metalenses with slowly varying meta-atoms, much faster and with correct accuracy.
Can run local or remote with Lumerical remote python API
3. Anisotropic Dielectric Permittivity Materials in CHARGE
The DC relative dielectric permittivity definition for electrical materials (semiconductors, alloys, and insulators) in CHARGE now supports diagonal anisotropy
(1) Correct electrostatic field distribution when highly anisotropic materials are present, such as Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3)
(2) Lithium Niobate material properties for different crystal cuts added to the Material Library
(3) Key application: Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) electro-optic modulators
(3-1) Potential technology solution to enable 100G+ modulators for PIC
(3-2) New Application Gallery example
Reference
A. Mercante, S. Shi, P. Yao, L. Xie, R. Weikle, and D. Prather, "Thin film lithium niobate electro-optic modulator with terahertz operating bandwidth," Opt. Express 26, 14810-14816 (2018).
4. Variational Method for Excitons in MQW
New faster, computationally less intensive calculations for finding exciton energies
(1) Supports exciton absorption calculation from variational ground state energy
(2) Enables support for SiGe material (e.g., SiGe APDs)
5. New CML Compiler User Interface
New user-friendly GUI with intuitive controls and menu options
(1) Status window highlights the build/QA status of each element in the library
(2) Easily deploy new models, rename and delete existing elements with the click of a button
(3) Output window prints log messages from the engine directly on the GUI
6. CML Compiler and EPDA Enhancements
(1) New and improved Verilog-A models
(1-1) New parameterized ring modulator model supports radius, coupling length, and coupling gap as Pcell parameters
(1-2) Improved photodetector model includes shot noise and captures inter-channel crosstalk between baseband carriers in simulations.
(2) Generated Verilog-A models now support SPECTRE 21
(3) Updated netlist extraction function of Virtuoso-INTERCONNECT co-simulation to handle netlists for complex, hierarchical circuits with parameterization
7. Second Harmonic Generation Waveguide Model for INTERCONNECT
New non-linear waveguide primitive in INTERCONNECT models second harmonic generation
(1) Enables modeling of nonlinear waveguides made with LiNbO3
(2) Supports both short pulse and CW pump operations
(3) Support tuning with periodic poling
8. Layer Builder Boolean Operations
New feature in Multiphysics suite supports operations between any mask layers
(geometry or doping)
(1) Natural mapping between mask layers and geometry: Mask layers defined by foundry are usually combined using Boolean operations to construct final mask for fabrication
(2) Enables cases where a combination of multiple mask layers determines the geometry
9. New Wizard for Virtuoso Layout Integration in Finite Element IDE
New Wizard for Virtuoso Lumerical FE-IDE direct bridge
(1) Layout Geometry Wizard helps customer to easily configure the integration
(2) Enables optimization of active devices using Multiphysics solvers (CHARGE, HEAT and FEEM) together with Cadence Virtuoso for the layout
10. Quantum Photonic Circuit Simulation with INTERCONNECT
Performance improvements and 2 new examples for qINTERCONNECT’
that simulates quantum behavior in PIC, accounting for imperfections and losses.
(1) New application examples:
(1-1) Realistic non-classical photon source models, reporting squeezing level and biphoton wavefunction: Spontaneous Four-wave mixing in microring resonator
(1-2) Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) measurement with (partially) indistinguishable non-classical sources
(2) Performance improvements: Double the number of channels or frequencies with the same simulation run time
(2-1) Key application: Higher frequency resolution of the biphoton wavefunction for HOM measurement
11. GPU Acceleration for FDTD
New FDTD simulation performance acceleration using single GPU
(1) GPU speeds up FDTD simulations with parallelization on graphic card. This enables scientists, and engineers working on PIC and Metalens to run their simulations in a fraction of the time and make discoveries faster. A single GPU Nvidia RTX4000 can offer a 6x speedup versus a 12-Core CPU
(2) Reduced hardware costs : GPU RTX4000 is $950 versus Intel 6226 12-Core CPU is $1180.
(3) GPU simulation mode runs on a constrained set of sources (Gaussian beam, Dipole, Mode), monitors (Time, DFT, Mode expansion) and materials behaviors compatible on a single GPU.
(4) Users must opt-in by enabling an option that changes how materials are handled and toggling their resource configuration from CPU to GPU.
12. Remote Python API
The Python API can now work in remote for all Lumerical tools
(1) Get started right away with your current Lumerical Python scripting skills - based on the existing Python InteropAPI
(2) Interactive scripting solution on your laptop, run simulations on cluster, send jobs to HPC
(3) Safe connection with a remote layer using SSL
(4) Download the Dockerfiles included with Lumerical for Linux, build a Container then deploy the Remote Server on Linux.
(5) Any laptop can connect to that session, client can be Windows or Linux.
13. Ansys Optics Launcher
The Optics Launcher is now available with the 3 optics software
(1) Users can get started with real simulation examples and product trials a click away and directly from inside the product launcher.
(2) Links you to articles for more in-depth insight instructions.
(3) Get started right away with product evaluation at the time you want with a 30-day trial license for Lumerical, Speos, and OpticStudio.
14. CMOS Image Sensor Workflow Enhancements
Enhancements to end-to-end camera workflow
(1) FDTD now includes the marginal rays from OpticStudio in the pixel simulation for more accurate calculation of the quantum efficiency.
(2) The EQE vs subpixel position and wavelength is combined with Speos light exposure and post-processed by the new Speos Sensor System to see all intermediaries' electronics images and final image.
(3) Recent general pixel architectures (e.g., quad pixels, corner pixels) are available to get you started
15. MQW and RCWA in Ansys optiSLang (Beta)
MQW and RCWA solvers are now available in the Lumerical connector in OptiSLang
(1) Automate Multiphysics simulation workflows and benefit from the state-of-the-art sensitivity analysis and optimization algorithms available in optiSLang
(2) Optimize edge-emitting lasers, EAMs, and uLEDs by driving your Multiphysics design workflow involving MQW solver with optiSLang
(3) Optimize photonic crystal or metalens design with RCWA utilizing the power of optiSLang