Ansys Shared Web Licensing is available for Lumerical tools from the 2024 R1 release. Instead of having to install and configure their own license server and then load a license file, users can simply sign-in with their Ansys account and their license is immediately accessible over the internet.
The design environments in Lumerical tools have been updated to be consistent with the design environments of other Ansys tools. This will give Ansys users a more cohesive design experience with familiar stylings and navigation options in the tool. A new ‘dark theme’ has also been introduced besides the updated ‘light theme’ (replacing classic theme). The revamped design environment is fully compatible with 4k high DPI screens and modern 3D view.
The Lumerical solvers now use 64-bit signed integers for matrix data enabling users to record and process larger matrices. This will benefit applications like large metalens simulation where users can end up with large matrices to setup their geometry and to collect simulation results.
As of 2024 R1, MPICH2 is no longer packaged with the Lumerical installation package on Linux. For distributed solve capability, users are recommended to install and run using either Open MPI or Intel MPI. For more information check out this KB page: Running simulations using terminal on Linux – Ansys Optics.
Multiphysics Suite Enhancements
New ‘assembly group’ in Multiphysics tools enables users to easily create large, complex structures that involve repetition of some set of objects, e.g., metalens. Generating these structures with assembly groups will make the geometry creation and meshing significantly faster for these large-scale designs.
The meshing speed of FDTD has been enhanced to utilize multi-threaded system more efficiently, resulting in a 30% - 50% speedup in large simulation with a substantial number of objects.
The GPU express mode in FDTD now supports multi-GPU runs on a single node, enabling users to benefit from the faster simulation capabilities of express mode for large simulations requiring lots of memory. Users can distribute their simulation on up to eight GPUs on a single node. The multi-GPU feature currently is only available in Linux. It is not supported in Windows.
RCWA now supports in-plane anisotropy in materials. This new feature will enable users to simulate complex materials like liquid crystals for display applications with the RCWA solver. For more information check out the ‘supported materials’ section on this KB page: RCWA Solver Introduction – Ansys Optics.
The MQW solver now supports higher order (8x8) k.p method including support for exciton models. This enhancement will allow users to simulate SiGe-based devices such as SiGe electro-absorption modulator with greater accuracy.
The quaternary alloys in MQW simulations now support spatial grading of the alloy fraction allowing users to design and simulate multi-quantum well stacks with graded layers of quaternary alloys in optoelectronic devices such as microLEDs.
The EME solver now displays a second wireframe solver region if any of the cells have a bent waveguide section. This new feature will let users visualize the actual shape of their simulation region and ensure accuracy when simulating bent devices like an s-bend waveguide. Note this feature only shows the outline of the simulation region. If the field profile of the device is recorded with EME monitors, the recorded result will still show the field profile for a ‘straight’ geometry.
The new option “auto scale pml parameters” in the FDE advanced settings automatically rescales certain PML parameters as the ratio of the incident wavelength to the spatial step at the PML layer changes. This helps ensure optimal PML performance and can simplify convergence analysis.
The RCWA solver now offers a new result named ‘grating_power’ which reports ratios of power flow (along the direction normal to the layers) of the transmitted and reflected waves to that of the incident wave for a specific input polarization and output grating order.
System Suite Enhancements
CML Compiler now supports the creation of photonic Verilog-A model for avalanche photodetector. This capability was available only for INTERCONNECT models but now has been extended to support Verilog-A modeling.