Photonic component design and analysis features in the 2015a release include:
- Usability and performance improvements to the eigenmode expansion (EME) solver in MODE Solutions, including the ability to import and export arbitrary field profiles, estimate calculation errors using advanced error diagnostic tools, and speed-up computation with a fully multi-threaded simulation engine;
- New stretched coordinate PML absorbing boundary conditions in FDTD Solutions and MODE Solutions, enabling greater computational speeds for a desired level of simulation accuracy and improved performance at steep angles of source injection in applications including semiconductor metrology, surface characterization and defect detection;
- Complex 3D geometry import and export capabilities in FDTD Solutions, MODE Solutions and DEVICE, using popular CAD formats including Standard Tessellation Language (STL) files;
- New Green’s function IQE calculator in DEVICE for rapid optical stack optimization of CMOS image sensor designs; and
- Extensive updates to the DEVICE materials database, including support for spatially-varying alloy semiconductor materials.


Updates to Lumerical’s photonic integrated circuit design and simulation tool, INTERCONNECT, include:
- A traveling wave electrode modulator model that accounts for optical and microwave propagation speed mismatch, microwave loss and impedance mismatch;
- A ring modulator compact model allowing for static, quasi-static and time-dependent analysis of micro-ring resonators;
- Support for schematic driven layout (SDL) and layout driven schematic (LDS) design flows for photonic integrated circuits in combination with PhoeniX Software OptoDesigner; and
- Element library model and simulation source enhancements to improve advanced process design kit (PDK) driven design and complex photonic circuit analysis.