EPIPPROP 3.5.2 provides a range of fixes and improvements for our users and we also take a sneak peak into the development plans for the coming months.

EPIPPROP can perform co-simulations with EME solver FIMMPROP to run rigorous simulations of mode propagation, coupling and loss then deploy the results in your AWG and Echelle Grating simulations. 

Read more about EPIPPROP + FIMMPROP co-simulations here.

In this latest update of EPIPPROP 3.5.2, devices defined by variables in EPIPPROP (for example an MMI used at import to achieve broader channels) will have their variables also sent over to FIMMPROP to allow for their use in co-simulation.

Those meeting us at recent conferences at CLEO and Photonics North will have already seen in our print material that we’ve announced two features that will be available with EPIPPROP’s next planned release. These include:

• Star Coupler Simulations 
  Star couplers can be designed independently from their AWGs. This continues to include export of results to circuit simulators like PICWave and GDS-II to layout tools.
   
• Slot Waveguides 
  EPIPPROP’s upcoming version will allow each AWG arm to be extensively customisable, including with the ability to include tapers and slots for advanced polarisation-independent designs. 

These features have been requested by the EPIPPROP community so if there are any features that would improve your work using EPIPPROP then let us know. With your feedback EPIPPROP continues to be lead by the needs of those designing on the cutting edge of research and industry.

• Improvements to algorithm address rare circumstance of refractive index being underestimated at slab/waveguide boundary.
• Improvements to supporting backward compatibility of extremely old .prj files.
• Manually defined tilts will no longer reset upon saving and reloading.
• We fixed an issue in the export of S matrices which could sometimes cause it to raise popup errors falsely claiming that the user has not put in valid input indices.
• We fixed an issue with the communication of ‘(off)’ filters in the Epipprop-FIMMPROP link.
• Loading projects where the SWG node has been put after the main Epipprop solver node will no longer raise an error. Now it will always load these nodes in a sensible order, even if the user has told it not to.