Fabricability Verification of Segmented Designs Using Paintbrush Patterns
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current design techniques for optical and electromagnetic devices often fail to consider the fabricability of generated designs, leading to inefficiencies in manufacturing as device complexity increases with smaller feature sizes.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that determine a paintbrush pattern and its inverse for a fabrication system, processing a segmented design using these patterns to calculate positive and negative paintbrush losses, combining them to assess fabricability, and providing the design for fabrication if it is deemed fabricable.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If design parameters are increased to enhance device functionality and reduce feature sizes, then device performance and manufacturing capability are improved, but design fabricability verification becomes increasingly complex and difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the fabricability verification problem from a complex geometric analysis into a simplified parameter-based evaluation by characterizing fabrication capabilities through paintbrush pattern parameters (width, length, shape) and evaluating designs against these parameters. This parameter transformation resolves the contradiction by maintaining functionality while simplifying verification complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical/geometric verification methods with a computational pattern-matching approach. Instead of manually checking geometric constraints, the system uses automated processing of paintbrush patterns against design segments, substituting complex mechanical verification with efficient computational evaluation.
2Productivity
If traditional design techniques are used without fabricability consideration, then design generation is simpler and faster, but manufacturing efficiency decreases due to iterative revisions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs fabricability verification as a preliminary action during the design generation phase, before manufacturing begins. By evaluating paintbrush pattern compatibility early in the design process, the system prevents subsequent manufacturing failures and iterative revisions, thereby improving both design speed and manufacturing efficiency simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where paintbrush loss calculations provide immediate information about fabricability issues. This feedback allows designers to adjust designs in real-time based on manufacturing constraints, eliminating the need for post-manufacturing revisions and improving overall productivity.
3Manufacturing precision
If paintbrush pattern processing is applied to verify fabricability, then manufacturing precision is improved, but computational processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the design into discrete elements and processes each segment independently against paintbrush patterns. This segmentation allows for efficient parallel processing and reduces overall computational time while maintaining precise fabricability evaluation for each design element.
Data Source
AI summary
In some embodiments, a design verification system is provided that is configured to perform actions for ensuring fabricability of a segmented design. The design verification system searches a proposed segmented design for a paintbrush pattern to determine a positive paintbrush loss, and searches for an inverse paintbrush pattern to determine a negative paintbrush loss. The design verification system combines the positive paintbrush loss and the negative paintbrush loss to obtain a total paintbrush loss that indicates whether or not the proposed segmented design is fabricable. If the total paintbrush loss indicates that the proposed segmented design is not fabricable, the design verification system updates the proposed segmented design based on a gradient of the total paintbrush loss.