Synopsys, a global developer of software, IP and services for the development of chips and electronic systems, announced the latest release of its RSoft Photonic Component Design Suite software for the design of photonic devices and components used in optical communications, optoelectronics and semiconductor manufacturing.
The latest version 2017.03 of the RSoft design suite is intended to speed optoelectronic device analysis via an updated interface to Synopsys’ Sentaurus TCAD products and new general monitor objects within the RSoft BeamPROP tool that help speed simulations of waveguide photodetectors by up to a claimed 100x compared to finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) methods.
The release also expands the RSoft tools’ capabilities for modelling nanoscale optical structures with an improved bi-directional scattering distribution function (BSDF) calculation for mixed-level LED/OLED simulations.
Further enhancement include new discrete multi-tone (DMT) modulation format functions in the OptSim tool for modelling and simulating DMT-based data links, including access networks and 100/400 Gigabit Ethernet-based data centre links, and a ModeSYS tool update for the design and analysis of large-core multimode fibre systems.
The enhanced Sentaurus TCAD interface is designed to enable integration of the RSoft optical tools in Sentaurus Workbench for in-depth, multidisciplinary simulations of optoelectronic devices. Additional improvements include support for systems with dispersive materials and dynamic updates of materials and the common simulation area.
Native bi-directional data interchange between RSoft tools and Sentaurus Workbench has been expanded to include the BeamPROP tool for waveguide detector simulation to speed designs. Specifically, new general monitor objects of BeamPROP perform efficient optical power absorption calculations to speed photodetector simulations by up to 100x versus FDTD-based methods, enabling faster device characterisation and optimisation.
The new release also enhances Synopsys’ LightTools and the RSoft mixed-level co-simulation method, which combines ray- and wave-based techniques to enable efficient incorporation of polarised diffraction effects in LightTools’ ray-tracing simulator. The co-simulation method employs the RSoft BSDF capability, which now performs improved scattering calculations of polarisation-dependent effects in nanoscale optical structures for the design of LEDs and OLEDs.
