This section describes the general workflow for setting up simulation in Lumerical's finite element products such as CHARGE and HEAT.
Note: The workflow for setting up a finite element simulation can be quite different from the process used in FDTD or MODE, as described below.
1. Specify Materials
The first step is to define a list of materials that you need to use in your simulation and assign optical, electrical or thermal properties to them. These materials can later be assigned to various geometric objects in your simulation.
2. Define Geometry and Assign Materials
Once you have a list materials defined for your simulation, you can define or import various geometric objects to build the structure you want to simulate and assign the desired material to the objects from the list created in the previous step.
3. Define Simulation Region(s) and Add Solver(s)
In this step, you will define the simulation region(s) to specify the extent of your simulation and add solver(s) to determine the type of simulation you want to perform in your project (optical, electrical or thermal).
4. Define Solver Specific Objects and Check the Design in Partitioned Volume Mode
After choosing the solver(s) needed for your simulation, you will need to add and define objects specific to the chosen solvers such as sources, monitors and boundary conditions.You can use the partitioned volume mode to make sure the solver(s) see what you intended in your design.
5. Error Check, Run and Analyze
The last step of the workflow includes checking your simulation for any errors and warnings, running the simulation and analyzing the returned results.