August 1, 2005 Ossining, NY -- RSoft Design Group, a developer of photonics design automation (PDA) software, has released a new version of its photonic component design suite, the RSoft Passive Device Suite 6.0. The company says the suite provides a fully integrated design environment that allows users to use different simulation programs to model various aspects of photonic devices.
The new release includes a significantly enhanced control program, the RSoft CAD Environment 6.0, as well as important updates to the simulation tools: BeamPROP 6.0, FullWAVE 4.0, BandSOLVE 2.0, GratingMOD 1.5, and DiffractMOD 1.5.
The company says that, since the software's last major release, new features have been added to significantly extend both the modeling capabilities and usability of the suite. According to the company, these new functionalities enable new application areas to be addressed, including high-contrast silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs), photonic crystal cavities, LED efficiency, image sensors, meta-materials, and optical metrology. Versions of these programs are available on both 64-bit Windows and Linux platforms, including Opteron and Itanium systems.
Added functionality to the RSoft CAD Environment, the interface for all the passive simulation tools, allows a variety of new applications to be modeled. The company says the tool's hierarchical and array layout features provide a convenient method of creating complicated waveguide and PBG-based PICs. A comprehensive material editor defines most material properties for both permittivity and permeability, such as 2nd and 3rd order nonlinearities, dispersion via multiple Lorentizan, Drude, or Debye models, anisotropy, and loss.
Another upgrade is an interface to the company's Multi-variable Optimization and Scanning Tool, (MOST). While MOST is a separate package, some its scanning capabilities are now included as part of the basic CAD environment. Other enhancements include 3D index visualization, and direct input of user data through symbol table functions.
In addition to the CAD updates, the individual tools have also been updated. Highlights include BeamPROP 6.0, the company's BPM simulation tool, which now features improved capabilities for 3D full-vector simulation, important for high-contrast waveguides such as silicon PICs. Also, following the trend of using FDTD-based simulation tools to design realistic functional nanophotonic devices, the company's FullWAVE 4.0 includes improved plane wave launches, Q calculation for resonant cavities, and improved clustering ability to enable 3D and large-scale FDTD simulations. Plus, BandSOLVE 2.0, the company's simulation package for photonic bandgap structures, includes improved simulation of PBG slabs; DiffractMOD 1.5 includes common measurements used in optical metrology applications.