FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

PlanOpSim allows scripting in two ways.

• Users can easily generate wavefront in Meta Component design through an easy-to-use python interface (the interface looks like the example picture shown below).
• Furthermore, since PlanOpSim is a cloud-first software, any action in the software can be automated via scripting through the API (using HTTP calls)

Yes. you can create meta cell group from a metacell simulation by using a CSV file. You can easily export the simulation results in a CSV file and then modify it according to your need and use it to create the meta cell library. The following has been demonstrated in the video Link.  

With our parameter sweep our users can easily analyze meta lens results in our user interface. You can find detailed information about how to use parameter sweep in this video.

Sharing the file by exporting the project from the source account and importing it to the destination account which is already implemented. Collaborating on the same project simultaneously – which is not possible in principle – since everything in our software is designed to have a single owner. There can be a possible implementation for collaboration by sharing the same credentials across different machines although only one job (simulation task) can be performed at once.

In our software application user interface, there is an option to select the incident light characteristics such as the beam pattern (plane wave or Gaussian) and also the direction of the beam described by the azimuth and the zenith angles.

Link to the youtube video.

We performed a test to compare the speed in a local machine and in the cloud server. The test design simulation parameters are as follows:

The reference structure uses the geometric phase (also called the Pancharatnam-Berry phase) which simultaneously converts polarization and controls the phase of the transmitted light. More details about the calculation can be found in the link below.

We have run the same calculation on the cloud using AWS and compared the calculation time to the local calculations above. On a laptop, the parameter sweep was completed in 19.3 minutes. The same calculation took only 10.65 minutes on the cloud. This represents a 45% decrease in calculation time. Keeping in mind that this test was run on a modest AWS machine. Scaling further to the most powerful cloud servers would further reduce the time vs. local calculations. PlanOpSim’s software is deployed on the cloud to have this increase of computation power in reach whenever needed. A simulation running in the cloud will also not compete with other programs and will not slow down other day-to-day work. This test was done by comparing an 8Gb core i7 laptop to the PlanOpSim cloud version. Keep in mind that the numbers for this comparison can change drastically depending on the local PC used for this. Some of our customers for instance use an in-house server that outperforms the cloud version.

The data is described Here.

PlanOpSim software uses multiscale simulation. In the Metacell module we use RCWA, in the MetaComponent model approximated methods and propagation optics are used to rapidly model large-area meta-surfaces

There are a few advantages our software holds for utilizing RCWA instead of other full wave solvers such as FDTD or FEM out of which the most important is speed. The detailed analysis considering a particular design problem has been discussed in the following Article. 

Our software application is mainly used in cloud based server, but we also provide services for running the application locally with particular product license key and USB drive. in others words: our solution can be air gaped, in some instances this is required by our customers and we happily assist them in setting this up for them.

You can just drag and drop files in json format for our software to read and display accordingly.

Soon there will be updates from our side where you can directly import image files which you want as target.

For choosing a particular wavefront target you can easily drag and drop your image file in json format in the above shown box that appears when you click on the import option. We are currently introducing new updates that can also import from a direct image file.

Currently, we have made 6.3mm*6.3mm size meta component with 13000 * 13000 meta cells within 20 min with a 4 CPU 32 GB ram version server. As seen the main limit is not the time but the memory which runs out generally. But we can scale up to cm size meta components simulation. Including segmentation and performing simulation for separate segments of very big size meta component can be a possible solution for tackling the memory issue assuming that the local approximation holds. For in-depth knowledge about the simulation time for different sizes of meta surface please contact us.

There is no limitation on the shape that is generated. However, the software contains several parameterized structures. Additionally, you can always import new structures with any shape. Practically the biggest limitation is the fact that not all shapes can be fabricated at the moment.

We use RCWA full-wave solver for our meta-cells and the creation of our meta-components is mainly done by brute force algorithms (there is scope for using some optimizing algorithms also).

We have tested various optimization algorithms and we can surely perform such optimizations based on the requests from the user. More information can be found in this video Link.

For our near-field wavefront approximation from the far-field, we use IIFTA (Iterative Inverse Fourier Transform Algorithm) which is generally very commonly used for such applications. We can provide other optimization which are currently not available through our software but are available through services.