To prepare you all for next month’s exciting webinar on the Ansys Optics 2024 R2 release, I wanted to highlight some of the features that deserve more attention and appreciation. To get a comprehensive list of the new features that were added and updated in 2024 R2 to Ansys Speos, Zemax OpticStudio, and Lumerical, don’t forget to tune in on Wednesday, November 13th!
Honorable Mention
I am sure you have all noticed that the Ansys Optics Technical Support teams have transitioned from their previous support system to the Ansys support systems. Allie at Zemax created a great overview of the changes and what it means for users: Zemax Case Support is Moving! | Zemax Community. If you are a PADT customer for Ansys, this change does not affect how you receive Ansys support. If you have utilized the Ansys Optics Support teams and are a PADT customer, you will now be redirected to PADT for your Ansys Optics technical support—which means you and I will become well-acquainted.
Ansys Optics Integration Updates
Optical Design Exchange
In 2024 R1 the Optical Design Exchange workflow was introduced to exchange optical data between Ansys Zemax OpticStudio and Ansys Speos. In 2024 R2, the workflow now supports the following Zemax OpticStudio sequential surfaces:
- Extended Polynomial
- Biconic
- Zernike Standard Sag and Fringe Sag
- Biconic Zernike
The Optical Design Exchange File (.ODX) will recreate the lenses in Speos. The equivalent non-sequential objects are also now supported—for a complete list of supported surfaces and objects please reach out to us!
The definition panel for the Optical Design Exchange Component within Speos has been improved to review all the geometry parameters that have been imported from Zemax OpticStudio. Those parameters include coating/surface properties, volume properties, and surface coefficients.
Interoperable Workflows Between Zemax OpticStudio and Lumerical
Non-scale and macro-scale optical effects can be accounted for in co-packaged optics thanks to the interoperability between Zemax OpticStudio and Lumerical. The workflow uses both optical ray tracing and simulations utilizing Maxwell’s equations to capture both the wave and ray characteristics of light.
New workflows have been created to automatically optimize grating and edge couplers to a fiber with Lumerical FDTD and Zemax OpticStudio. Things like fiber misalignment and manufacturing tolerances can be accounted for to ensure that co-packaged optics are meeting requirements. The Ansys Optics team has outlined this type of workflow in this great KnowledgeBase article: Integrated microlens and grating coupler for photonic integrated circuits – Ansys Optics.
Ansys Zemax 2024 R2 Release Highlights
Attention all university students! A student version of Ansys Zemax OpticStudio is now available: Ansys Student Versions | Free Student Software Downloads. There are some limitations to the student version, like nonsequential mode and STAR not supported, but this should allow students to design optical systems without needing to purchase a Zemax OpticStudio license.
In 2024 R2, the Ansys Zemax OpticStudio team focused on enhancing their tolerancing capabilities by creating new tolerance operands that target different manufacturing and fabrication errors. The new operands target tolerances on surface irregularities and rotationally symmetric irregularities to capture more accurate optical system simulations.
Ansys Speos 2024 R2 Release Highlights
I continue to be impressed by the work that the Speos team has done to improve the Live Preview feature within Speos. Over the past few releases, the look, feel, and accuracy of the Live Preview tool has continued to improve and become more user friendly. The 2024 R2 updates to Live Preview include the addition of the Virtual Lighting Controller to individually tune a source or a group of sources at once. Light levels instantaneously update without the need for restarting or rerunning the simulation. This can significantly reduce the number of simulations needed and in turn, save engineers time and money.
Sequences in a stray light analysis can be sorted by peak hot spots by using the Peak Value option in the “Sort sequences per” parameter in the sensor definition. This option reflects the contribution of the hot spots that degrade the overall image quality due to unwanted light that enters the optical system and reaches the detector. This is an alternative to sorting the sequences by relative energy distribution which sorts sequences by decreasing order but can miss the effects of hot spots that may be more detrimental to the overall image quality.
Ansys Lumerical 2024 R2 Release Highlights
In the 2024 R2 release, Lumerical enhanced workflows for Photonic Integrated Circuits. The first enhancement is a direct bridge between KLayout and Lumerical Multiphysics solvers. Simulation regions can be generated in Lumerical Multiphysics by importing a KLayout cell.
A new schematic-driven design workflow has been created with the open-source layout software GDSFACTORY to design a PIC schematic and run a simulation in Lumerical INTERCONNECT. The GDSFactory software has over 1 million downloads and over 50 contributors. Integrations like these make collaborations across the photonics easier than ever before.
Lastly, I did want to mention that Lumerical continues to improve the FDTD Multi-GPU Acceleration capabilities with each release. In 2024 R2, period and bloch boundary conditions are now compatible with GPU solves and the results are as accurate as CPU simulations.
Well, if you’ve made it this far, I hope you are as excited as I am to test these new features in the Ansys Optics 2024 R2 release. Don’t forget to tune in on November 13th for a completed list of new features and updates to Ansys Zemax OpticStudio, Speos, and Lumerical. We will have a Q&A section towards the end so come chat.
For any questions, please feel free to reach out to myself or the software support team at swsupport@padtinc.com.
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