Techniques for determining and using static regions in an inverse design process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11501053-B2
Application number	US-202016994389-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 14, 2020
Priority date	Aug 14, 2020
Publication date	Nov 15, 2022
Grant date	Nov 15, 2022

Abstract

In some embodiments, logic stored on a computer-readable medium, in response to execution, causes a computing system to conduct an inverse design process to generate a plurality of segmented designs corresponding to a plurality of device specifications, determine at least one highly impactful design area based on the plurality of segmented designs; and designate the at least one highly impactful design area as a static design area. In some embodiments, a product line comprising a plurality of physical devices is provided. Each physical device of the plurality of physical devices includes a design region that includes a static design area and a customized design area. The static design area for each physical device is the same for each physical device of the plurality of physical devices, and the customized design area for each physical device is different for each physical device of the plurality of physical devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having logic stored thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processors of a computing system, causes the computing system to perform actions comprising:
conducting an inverse design process to generate a plurality of segmented designs corresponding to a plurality of device specifications, wherein each segmented design includes a design region comprising structures optimized based on a corresponding device specification during the inverse design process;
determining at least one highly impactful design area based on the plurality of segmented designs, wherein the at least one highly impactful design area is a subarea of the design region, and wherein the determining includes:
analyzing field magnitudes in corresponding regions of the plurality of segmented designs; and
selecting at least one region wherein an average field magnitude is greater than a threshold field magnitude; and

designating the at least one highly impactful design area as a static design area.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding regions of the plurality of segmented designs include at least one region within the design region near at least one input port and at least one region within the design region near at least one output port.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein determining the at least one highly impactful design area based on the plurality of segmented designs includes increasing or decreasing a size of the at least one region within the design region near at least one input port or the at least one region within the design region near at least one output port based on the field magnitudes.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the actions further comprise determining structures to be used in the static design area based on the plurality of segmented designs.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein determining the structures to be used in the static design area based on the plurality of segmented designs includes:
determining a segmented design of the plurality of segmented designs having a desired performance characteristic; and
using structures of the determined segmented design within the static design area as the structures to be used in the static design area.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein determining the segmented design of the plurality of segmented designs having the desired performance characteristic includes determining the segmented design of the plurality of segmented designs having maximum field magnitudes within the highly impactful design area.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein determining the segmented design of the plurality of segmented designs having the desired performance characteristic includes determining the segmented design of the plurality of segmented designs having maximum performance with respect to its corresponding device specification.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the actions further comprise:
repeating the inverse design process for the plurality of device specifications while using the determined structures for the static design area to generate a plurality of updated segmented designs.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the actions further comprise:
verifying performance characteristics of the plurality of updated segmented designs; and
in response to determining at least one updated segmented design cannot achieve a desired performance characteristic, determining different structures to be used in the static design area.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the actions further comprise:
receiving a new device specification for a new device; and
conducting an inverse design process to generate a new segmented design corresponding to the new device specification, wherein the new segmented design uses the determined structures for the static design area.

11. A computer-implemented method for inverse design of a physical device, the method comprising:
receiving a device specification;
determining structures for use in a static design area within a design region, wherein the design region connects one or more input ports and one or more output ports; and
conducting an inverse design process to generate a segmented design corresponding to the device specification, wherein the inverse design process optimizes structures within the design region other than the determined structures in the static design area.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein determining the structures for use in the static design area within the design region includes retrieving the design portion from a computer-readable medium.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein determining the structures for use in the static design area includes:
conducting an inverse design process to generate a plurality of segmented designs corresponding to a plurality of device specifications, wherein each segmented design includes a design region comprising structures optimized based on a corresponding device specification during the inverse design process;
determining at least one highly impactful design area based on the plurality of segmented designs, wherein the at least one highly impactful design area is a subarea of the design region; and
designating the at least one highly impactful design area as a static design area.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein determining the at least one highly impactful design area based on the plurality of segmented designs includes:
analyzing field magnitudes in corresponding regions of the plurality of segmented designs; and
selecting at least one region wherein an average field magnitude is greater than a threshold field magnitude.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein the corresponding regions of the plurality of segmented designs include at least one region within the design region near at least one input port and at least one region within the design region near at least one output port.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein determining the at least one highly impactful design area based on the plurality of segmented designs includes increasing or decreasing a size of the at least one region within the design region near at least one input port or the at least one region within the design region near at least one output port based on the field magnitudes.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein determining the design portion for use in the static design area further includes determining structures to be used in the static design area based on the plurality of segmented designs.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17 , wherein determining the structures to be used in the static design area based on the plurality of segmented designs includes:
determining a segmented design of the plurality of segmented designs having a desired performance characteristic; and
using structures of the determined segmented design within the static design area as the structures to be used in the static design area.

19. A product line comprising a plurality of physical devices;
wherein each physical device of the plurality of physical devices includes a design region, wherein the design region connects one or more input ports

Assignees

• X Dev Llc

Inventors

• Adolf Brian
• Prewitt Patricia

Classifications

• G06F30/392

  Floor-planning or layout, e.g. partitioning or placement · CPC title

• G06F30/398 Primary

  Design verification or optimisation, e.g. using design rule check [DRC], layout versus schematics [LVS] or finite element methods [FEM] (optical proximity correction [OPC] design processes G03F1/36) · CPC title

• G06F30/20

  Design optimisation, verification or simulation (optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30) · CPC title

• H04J14/02

  Wavelength-division multiplex systems · CPC title

• G02B6/2938

  for multiplexing or demultiplexing, i.e. combining or separating wavelengths, e.g. 1xN, NxM · CPC title