Lattice-Imposed Inverse Design for Fabricable Optical Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
The design of optical and electromagnetic devices often relies on guesswork, and existing techniques fail to ensure that generated designs are fabricable, especially as device feature sizes decrease and functionality increases, leading to a need for verifying and optimizing device designs for manufacturing feasibility.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a computing system that receives a design specification, determines a proposed segmented design with lattice members and voids, simulates its performance, and adjusts these elements to improve fabricability, ensuring that the design complies with minimum feature sizes and spacings of the fabrication system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If device functionality is increased and feature sizes are decreased, then device performance is improved, but manufacturing feasibility deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The device design is divided into multiple discrete segments or units, allowing complex functionality to be achieved through composition of simpler, manufacturable elements. This segmentation enables high functionality while maintaining manufacturing feasibility by breaking down intricate structures into fabricable components.
Solution Approach 2:
The design transitions from two-dimensional planar structures to three-dimensional architectures, enabling enhanced functionality and performance without continuously shrinking feature sizes. By utilizing vertical stacking and spatial arrangement, the patent achieves improved device capability while maintaining manufacturable dimensional constraints.
2Reliability
If design parameters are increased to optimize performance, then device performance is improved, but design complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent systematically varies key design parameters such as segment dimensions, material compositions, and structural configurations to optimize device performance. By identifying and adjusting critical parameters rather than all possible variables, the method achieves high performance while managing design complexity through focused parameter optimization.
Solution Approach 2:
The design process incorporates iterative feedback loops where simulation results and performance measurements inform subsequent design modifications. This feedback mechanism enables systematic optimization of device performance while reducing design complexity by guiding parameter adjustments based on measured outcomes rather than exhaustive exploration.
Data Source
AI summary
In some embodiments, techniques for creating fabricable segmented designs for physical devices are provided. A proposed segmented design is determined based on a design specification. The proposed segmented design includes a plurality of segments that each includes an indication of a material for the segment. The proposed segmented design also includes lattice members and lattice voids. A size of the lattice members and a size of the lattice voids are greater than a size of the segments and are greater than or equal to at least one of a minimum feature width and a minimum feature spacing of a fabrication system Performance of the proposed segmented design is simulated. One or more lattice members and lattice voids are chosen to change to improve the performance of the proposed segmented design.