21 May 2003 Ossining, NY and Tucson, AZ Lightwave -- Thin Film Center Inc. has announced the integration of its Essential Macleod software package with RSoft Design Group Inc.'s optical communication system simulation software LinkSIM.
LinkSIM is an optical communication system simulation package that includes an object-oriented topology layout facility, a waveform simulation engine, and display and analysis tools. It is used to design optical communication systems and simulate them to determine their performance given various component parameters. Essential Macleod, Thin Film Center's flagship product, is a comprehensive software package for the design and analysis of optical thin films.
Users create filters in Essential Macleod according to the application requirements and specifications. Once the design work is done, Essential Macleod exports the data file describing the filter characteristics to a LinkSIM directory where the system simulations are performed. Users can then define their system topology in LinkSIM and assign the proper parameters for the system to be simulated, including the custom filter model that describes the filter designed with Essential Macleod. The LinkSIM simulations allow users to study the performance of the components designed in Essential Macleod in this system environment. Through this interface, designers can readily modify their filter designs in Essential Macleod to improve their system performance as simulated by LinkSIM.
The partnership between RSoft and Thin Film Center enables components designed with Essential Macleod to be directly simulated in LinkSIM, and the performance of those components in the system environment can be fully investigated. This integration between device-level and system-level design and simulation provides improved design processes, thereby reducing development cycles and costs, say representatives for the companies.
"The behavior of a thin film component is a complicated function of illumination conditions as well as design," explains Angus Macleod, chief executive officer of Thin Film Center. "To store enough tables of performance data to deal with all requirements is utterly beyond reasonable capacity. The link with Essential Macleod neatly solves this problem. Powerful tools can be used to design new components that can immediately be plugged into LinkSIM to evaluate their effect on system performance," he adds.