Software’s 3D textures can now be applied to curved surfaces

The software’s 3D textures allow designers to model patterns of repeating structures on an optical surface, and can now be applied to curved surfaces. To enhance a lighting system's intensity and distribution, this feature provides control, speed and flexibility. Although elements are available in many predefined, industry-standard shapes, elements can also be customised to meet specific performance and manufacturing requirements. This feature is particularly useful for the design of complex curved surfaces used in automotive lighting, light pipes, backlit displays, optics for luminaires, and LED coupler optics.

LightTools’ Unified Glare Rating (UGR) function, which uses standard conditions as defined in CIE 190:2010, now not only calculates the UGR, but also allows designers to automatically improve the glare rating.

Useful for the analysis of digital projectors and backlit displays, the updated software includes enhancements that make the analysis of polarised light faster and easier. When exporting receiver ray data, designers can now include polarisation data, allowing ray data files to replicate sources with polarisation characteristics. This reduces simulation time and enables designers to share source performance data without exposing details of the source construction. To allow designers to capture ray data pertaining to a linear polariser, a receiver filter has been added to the software. It is, therefore, no longer necessary for designers to create an actual polarising element in the model to explore the polarisation state of the light at a receiver. This saves time and allows different polarisation states to be analysed without running repeated simulations.

“Synopsys' LightTools 8.2 includes robust features that extend the software's support for the design of complex illumination systems,” commented George Bayz, Vice President and General Manager, Optical Solutions Group, Synopsys. “For example, by supporting 3D textures on curved surfaces, LightTools provides illumination designers with a powerful, intuitive tool to maximise light extraction and control the scattering of light in a wide range of applications, including complex light pipes, non-planar backlights and surfaces designed to control the illumination pattern in general lighting designs.”

“With the capability for placing micro-lenses on curved surfaces in LightTools, our designers are able to directly optimise lighting designs without having to repeatedly interact with a separate mechanical 3D model,” said Wu Jiang, Director of optics, LedEngin. “This is a much more convenient, efficient design process. Having the ability to place micro-structures on curved surfaces is also essential for achieving a desired colour quality, which is increasingly important for the general lighting market.”

LightTools 8.2 is available now and can be downloaded by customers with a current maintenance agreement from the Synopsys website.