Optoelectronic Simulation of Solar Cells, Waveguides, and LEDs

In this webinar, we will give an overview of Silvaco’s optical simulation capabilities in time domain, namely the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. FDTD has seen a widespread use in TCAD thanks to its versatility in simulating arbitrary device structures and materials using a variety of source configurations. The recent surge in interest in this method has been driven by advances in lighting, display, optical sensor, as well as photonics integrated circuits applications. We will demonstrate the FDTD simulation features, setup, and output based on real-world applications such as solar cells, waveguides, and LEDs. We will further show how the optics are coupled to an electrical simulation. Finally, we will discuss performance optimization and trade-offs presented by FDTD and describe alternative optical methods offered by Silvaco’s Optics Library.

What attendees will learn:

• Key elements of the FDTD solver implementation
• How to set up an input deck to run an FDTD simulation (meshing, boundary conditions, source parameters, etc.)
• How to simulate light propagation of an external beam source in 2D and 3D
• How to simulate light radiation from a point source inside the device in 2D and 3D
• How to view and interpret optical output
• Key points on simulating optoelectronic coupling

Presenter

Dr. Slim Chourou is a Senior Software Development Engineer at Silvaco. He is responsible for designing and implementing optical solvers libraries and related software tools used to simulate a wide class of optoelectronic and photonic applications. Prior to joining Silvaco in 2014, Dr. Chourou was a postdoctoral fellow at the Computational Science Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA, USA, developing high performance simulation software for materials characterization.

Dr. Chourou holds a MS and a Ph.D. in Applied Science and Engineering from the University of California, Davis, USA.