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SimWorks releases SimWorks Finite Difference Solutions version 3.8.0

Published Date: 2026-09-29 15:01:37

Dear users:
Thank you all for your attention and support to the SimWorks software. To further optimize the user experience and enhance the simulation quality, this software has been updated to version 3.8.0. The key update contents this time are:

RCWA Solver Enhancements

This update further enhances the RCWA solver, expanding its modeling and simulation capabilities for non-orthogonal unit cells, large periodic structures, and different propagation directions. It is suitable for scenarios such as gratings, waveguide gratings, metasurfaces, photonic crystal slabs, and multilayer periodic structures. Key updates include:

  • Add Layer Repetition for efficient simulation of large periodic structures. Once enabled, the solver repeats a defined geometric entity. Users can set the thickness (thickness) or specify the repetition multiple (multiple) to achieve layer repetition. The repetition multiple can be an integer or non-integer; for non-integer values, the layer is appropriately sliced. In addition, non-repeating layers can be defined around the repeating region, and multiple repeating layers can be defined as needed.

  • Add Propagation Axis to specify the coordinate axis along which the electromagnetic wave propagates, typically the normal direction of the structure.
  • Add Simulation Region to set the dimensionality of the simulation region, including 2D (2D X normal, 2D Y normal, and 2D Z normal) or 3D (3D).
  • Add lattice vector angle to enable simulation with non-orthogonal unit cells. Users can modify the angle between lattice basis vectors (range 1° ~ 179°). When the lattice basis vector angle is not 90°, the mesh refinement method must be set to Staircase.

EME Simulation Capability Enhancement

The EME solver adds mode-solving parameter functionality for custom cell group. After selecting the allow custom fde settings option, users can specify independent mode-solving settings for different cell groups in the simulation structure, for example:

  • Total Modes sets the number of modes to solve for each cell group individually.
  • Guess specifies the starting effective refractive index for mode searching in the cell group.
  • Bent Waveguide sets the corresponding bend radius for cell groups containing curved sections.

Optimized Conformal Mesh Construction

When simulating projects with very large and complex structures, conformal mesh construction typically requires significant computational resources and time. This update optimizes such scenarios by improving conformal mesh construction efficiency when a very large number of structures exist, significantly reducing construction time. It also optimizes memory usage during 3D mesh construction for very large and complex structures, effectively reducing resource consumption. In a very large project test, mesh creation time is reduced by 50% to 90%; memory usage during mesh creation decreases from 49 GB in Release 3.7.0 to 15.2 GB in Release 3.8.0, a reduction of approximately 69%.

Optimized CUDA FDTD Host Memory Usage and Host-to-Device Memory Copy

Optimize host memory usage during CUDA FDTD simulation, greatly reducing host memory consumption and improving the efficiency of host-to-device memory copy. This significantly lowers the hardware requirements for very large-scale simulation tasks and improves resource utilization efficiency and simulation stability.

New S-Matrix Sweep Result Export

Add S-Matrix Sweep result export functionality, allowing users to save S-Matrix Sweep data as Touchstone format files for subsequent analysis or co-simulation with other software. Touchstone is a common data format in optical simulation and RF fields. Users can export by right-clicking a completed sweep and selecting Export::Touchstone format or by executing the script command exportsweep.

Complete update content see - Release Notes, Welcome users to download to use - Customer Downloads !
Shandong Guangfang Software Company has been deeply engaged in the development of optical simulation software for many years, committed to providing more professional and efficient simulation services. Once again, we thank you all for your attention and look forward to your feedback and valuable suggestions!