Techniques for using convex fabrication loss functions during an inverse design process to obtain fabricable designs

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11727171-B2
Application number	US-202017037226-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2020
Priority date	Sep 29, 2020
Publication date	Aug 15, 2023
Grant date	Aug 15, 2023

Abstract

In some embodiments, techniques for creating a fabricable segmented design for a physical device are provided. A computing system receives a design specification. The computing system generates a proposed segmented design based on the design specification. The computing system determines one or more fabricable segmented designs based on the proposed segmented design. The computing system determines an overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more fabricable segmented designs. The computing system backpropagates a gradient of the overall fabrication loss value to create an updated design specification.

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 for creating a fabricable segmented design for a physical device, the actions comprising:
receiving, by the computing system, a design specification;
generating, by the computing system, a proposed segmented design based on the design specification;
determining, by the computing system, one or more fabricable segmented designs based on the proposed segmented design;
for each fabricable segmented design of the one or more fabricable segmented designs, generating a fabrication loss matrix that represents differences between the fabricable segmented design and the proposed segmented design by:
comparing segments of the fabricable segmented design to corresponding segments of the proposed segmented design; and
in response to detecting a difference between a material indicated by a segment of the fabricable segmented design and a material indicated by a corresponding segment of the proposed segmented design, adding a value that represents the difference between the material indicated by the segment of the fabricable segmented design and the material indicated by the corresponding segment of the proposed segmented design to the fabrication loss matrix:

determining, by the computing system, an overall fabrication loss value based on the fabrication loss matrices; and
backpropagating, by the computing system, a gradient of the overall fabrication loss value to create an updated design specification.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein determining the overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more fabrication loss matrices further includes reducing each separate fabrication loss matrix to a scalar value.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein reducing each separate fabrication loss matrix to the scalar value includes at least one of:
determining a sum of values in the fabrication loss matrix;
determining a sum of squares of values in the fabrication loss matrix; and
determining an average of values in the fabrication loss matrix.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein determining the overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more fabricable segmented designs further includes reducing the scalar values to an overall scalar value.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein reducing the scalar values to the overall scalar value includes at least one of:
determining a minimum value of the scalar values; and
multiplying the scalar values.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the actions further comprise:
generating a new proposed segmented design based on the updated design specification.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the actions further comprise:
in response to determining that a fabrication loss of the new proposed segmented design fails to meet a fabricability threshold:
determining one or more new fabricable segmented designs based on the new proposed segmented design;
determining a new overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more new fabricable segmented designs; and
backpropagating a gradient of the new overall fabrication loss value to create a second updated design specification.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein determining the new overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more new fabricable segmented designs includes determining the new overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more new fabricable segmented designs and the one or more fabricable segmented designs.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the actions further comprise:
in response to determining that a fabrication loss of the new proposed segmented design meets a fabricability threshold, providing the new proposed segmented design to a fabrication system to manufacture the physical device.

10. A method of creating a fabricable segmented design for a physical device, the method comprising:
receiving, by a computing system, a design specification;
generating, by the computing system, a proposed segmented design based on the design specification;
determining, by the computing system, one or more fabricable segmented designs based on the proposed segmented design;
for each fabricable segmented design of the one or more fabricated segmented designs, generating a fabrication loss matrix that represents differences between the fabricable segmented design and the proposed segmented design by:
comparing segments of the fabricable segmented design to corresponding segments of the proposed segmented design; and
in response to detecting a difference between a material indicated by a segment of the fabricable segmented design and a material indicated by a corresponding segment of the proposed segmented design, adding a value that represents the difference between the material indicated by the segment of the fabricable segmented design and the material indicated by the corresponding segment of the proposed segmented design to the fabrication loss matrix;

determining, by the computing system, an overall fabrication loss value based on the fabrication loss matrices; and
backpropagating, by the computing system, a gradient of the overall fabrication loss value to create an updated design specification.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein determining the overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more fabrication loss matrices further includes reducing each separate fabrication loss matrix to a scalar value.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein reducing each separate fabrication loss matrix to the scalar value includes at least one of:
determining a sum of values in the fabrication loss matrix;
determining a sum of squares of values in the fabrication loss matrix; and
determining an average of values in the fabrication loss matrix.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more fabricable segmented designs further includes reducing the scalar values to an overall scalar value.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein reducing the scalar values to the overall scalar value includes at least one of:
determining a minimum value of the scalar values; and
multiplying the scalar values.

15. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
generating a new proposed segmented design based on the updated design specification.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
in response to determining that a fabrication loss of the new proposed segmented design fails to meet a fabricability threshold:
determining one or more new fabricable segmented designs based on the new proposed segmented design;
determining a new overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more new fabricable segmented designs; and
backpropagating a gradient of the new overall fabrication loss value to create a second updated design specification.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein determining the new overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more new fabricable segmented designs includes determining the new overall fabrication loss value based on the one or more new fabricable segmented designs and the one or more fabricable segmented designs.

18. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
in response to det

Assignees

• X Dev Llc

Inventors

• Schubert Martin
• Alexander David

Classifications

• G06F30/20 Primary

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

• G06F30/23 Primary

  using finite element methods [FEM] or finite difference methods [FDM] · CPC title

• G06F2119/18

  Manufacturability analysis or optimisation for manufacturability · CPC title

• G02B27/0172

  characterised by optical features · CPC title

• Y02P90/02

  Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] · CPC title