RSoft Photonic CAD Suite 2025: Comprehensive Photonic Design Software

RSoft Photonic CAD Suite is the industry-leading photonic design software from Synopsys (formerly RSoft products, now part of Keysight’s photonic solutions) . It provides a complete environment for designing, simulating, and optimizing passive and active photonic devices .

Key Features

Unified CAD Environment

  • Flexible Design Interface: Create virtually any geometry for waveguide devices and optical circuits

  • 3D Editing: View structures across X, Y, Z axes with multi-pane views

  • Material Color Coding: Easy visualization of complex structures based on material properties

Multiple Simulation Algorithms

RSoft includes a comprehensive set of simulation engines :

  • BeamPROP (BPM): For integrated and fiber optics waveguide simulation

  • FullWAVE (FDTD): For nanophotonic devices and photonic crystals

  • DiffractMOD (RCWA): For diffractive optical elements and gratings

  • GratingMOD: Specialized for grating design

  • BandSOLVE: Photonic band structure calculation

  • FemSIM: Finite element mode solver

  • ModePROP: Modal propagation analysis

MetaOptic Designer Enhancements

  • OASIS Export: Export layouts in OASIS format (smaller files than GDS), Windows-only

  • Faster GDS Export: Improved large GDS file export performance

TCAD Integration

  • Bi-directional Interface: Seamless integration with Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD

  • Exact Geometry Transfer: Use exact TCAD geometry with efficient sub-cell gridding

  • Native File Formats: No messy file format conversions needed

  • Sentaurus Workbench Integration: Complete optoelectronic analysis workflow

Performance Improvements

  • Faster Initialization: Reduced time when reading large TDR files

  • Improved Polygon Import: Faster XY polygon import from GDS files