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Ansys Speos
Design & Validation of Optical Systems

Ansys Speos predicts the illumination and optical performance of systems to save on prototyping time and costs while improving your product’s efficiency.

 

Ansys Speos Helps You See Optical Simulation in a New Light!

Ansys Speos delivers an intuitive and comprehensive user interface, enhanced productivity with use of GPUs for simulation previews and easy access to the Ansys multiphysics ecosystem.

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    Simulate Sensor Vision
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    Advanced Optical Analysis
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    Optical Design Optimization
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    Human Vision

Quick Specs

Speos has been assessed by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) against CIE 171:2006 test cases, assessing the accuracy of light modeling software and showing the performance benefits of Ansys Speos.

  • Connection with Multiphysics Simulations
  • CAD Connection
  • Visibility and Legibility
  • Ansys Cloud Integration
  • Speos Live Preview
  • Virtual Reality
  • Custom Materials Library
  • Robust Design Optimization for Optical Design
  • Illuminance, Luminance and Intensity
  • Human Vision
  • Speos Lens System

January 2024

What's New

The new release of Ansys Speos delivers powerful capabilities that speed time to result, improve simulation accuracy, and expand interoperability with other Ansys products.

Stray Light Analysis
Stray Light Analysis - Optical Design Exchange

The Optical Design Exchange file links between OpticStudio and Speos to ensure a seamless stray light analysis workflow.

Physical Camera Senso
Stray Light Analysis - Physical Camera Sensor

The new physical camera sensor decreases simulation time by offering the ability to aim rays toward the optical system's entrance and consider the optical paths found during a first stray light analysis.

Geometrical Design
Geometrical Design - Optical Part Design Enhancements

Optical Part Design construction speed is drastically improved compared to previous Speos releases, especially for Optical Surface and Optical Lens.

Regulation Viewer
Geometrical Design - Regulation Viewer

Faster geometry creation to iterate on automotive signaling optimization thanks to the regulation viewer.

HMD Tracking
Result Experience - HMD Tracking

The 2024 R1 release allows for duplicating the VR-Lab view into VR HMD. HMD tracking support enables users to experience stereoscopy with a 3D device and achieve virtual image perception for HUDs and AR/VR device design using the HMD.

Live Preview
Result Experience - Live Preview

Speos 2024 R1 proposes a new Live Preview interface for a modern, intuitive, and pleasant user experience. It benefits from the Ansys Experience with ARCs menus, a smooth interface, and 4K compatible simplified, condensed menus.

Mazda Sees the Light with Ansys Speos

A new generation of MAZDA3 uses Speos 3D optical analysis for development of interiors and lights.

Ansys SPEOS Mazda

It was always difficult to verbally explain how much more the vehicle can improve but visualizing it with Ansys Speos easily convinces the designer.

The making of the all-new MAZDA3 required a fresh way to judge illumination recommendations and perform analysis. This involved evaluating actual light illumination early in the development cycle, leading Mazda to Ansys Speos. With Speos, Mazda reduced, on average, the number of $95,000 vehicle prototypes per project by three, all while finding a more optimal interior design. 

The Speos solution helped Mazda accurately analyze — in a single simulation — light amount and wavelength, accurately analyze reflective properties and reproduce and quantify luminance distribution in two dimensions, allowing Mazda to perform simulations without sacrificing accuracy. By incorporating Speos, Mazda has a better end product and is more involved in detailed design choices earlier in the process. Mazda engineers can optimize features for mass production, saving time and money, and can work with suppliers via Speos simulations to determine exact specifications for a more efficient development process.

Applications

View all Applications
Car exterior simulation

Autonomous Sensor Development

Ansys provides a comprehensive autonomous vehicle sensor simulation capability that includes lidar, radar and camera design and development.

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Vehicle Interior

Learn how Ansys simulation enables the optimization of vehicle interior design, from comfort and noise to the human machine interface.

Car exterior simulation

Vehicle Exterior

Ansys simulation enables you to optimize automotive exteriors by lowering drag, reducing weight and improving fuel efficiency and range.

Autonomous vehicle simulation

CAPABILITIES

Design, Optimize and Validate Your Optical System

Turn on the light in your virtual model and intuitively explore the propagation of light in 3D. The Speos Live preview function features simulation and rendering capabilities so you can design products interactively. Cut iteration time and speed up your decision-making process by performing simulations correctly the first time, automatically designing for optical surfaces, light guides and optical lenses. To match your performance specifications, Speos combines powerful light analysis capabilities with illumination evaluation across the electromagnetic spectrum, allowing for high-fidelity visualization based on human vision capabilities. Deploy these visualizations in virtual reality for a fully immersive review experience.

 

Capabilities

Ansys Speos optical design software uniquely simulates a system’s optical performance and evaluates the final illumination effect, based on human vision.

  • Standalone CAD interface and CAD integration
  • DesignDesign Optimization
  • Direct Modeling
  • SimulationSimulation Performance
  • HUD: Design and Analysis
  • Simulation result experience 
  • Ray tracing and Ray Propagation Engine
  • Advanced analysis tools
  • Light Source
  • Lighting Application Optical Design
  • Optical Properties
  • Sensor Integration
  • Multiphysics
  • Ansys Optics Solutions Interoperability
  • Optical data exchange
  • Speos provides an intuitive, easy-to-use CAD interface to handle 3D geometries and assets that can be natively created or imported from other CAD software.
  • Speos can rely on parametric modeling thanks to the CAD integrations providing the same look and feel as the CAD host graphical user interface, so non-optical experts can comfortably master the Speos workflow.
  • Speos offers an embedded solution to set up an optimization based on a random search algorithm.
    • Variables are based on Speos parameters as well as geometrical ones.
    • Targets are based on values directly measured in the simulation results.
  • The design of experiment mode permits the generalization a design table from the selected variables to study the influence of different sets of values on the simulation results’ measurements.
  • The scripting interface permits the replication of all the actions done in the user interface, from the source creation to the analysis of the simulation results. The interface provides endless possibilities to automate repetitive tasks, for instance.
  • Direct modeling capabilities permit users to define and capture geometries quickly without the complexity of traditional CAD software.
  • Non-CAD experts can easily create geometries in a few clicks, reducing the geometry preparation time.
  • Speos GPU powered by Nvidia OptiX takes advantage of the Ray-Tracing hardware acceleration available in the latest generations of Nvidia GPUs to reach unmatched simulation performances with no tradeoff on accuracy. Experience the same Speos workflow and result quality in a fraction of the time. The Nvidia RTX6000 Ada Generation delivers performance on Speos simulation equivalent to more than 300 CPU cores.
  • Speos HPC accelerates simulation speed beyond any limit. Simulation can be deployed to any HPC infrastructure, Windows or Linux, cloud or locally owned, from a few to thousands of nodes with linear performance scalability. Take advantage of 10,000 cores to run 10,000 times faster.
  • HUD Design and Analysis permits users to study the technical feasibility of a HUD according to windshield shape and packaging constraints
  • Automatic tools help design the optical system and improve the perceived quality of the image by optimizing layout and shapes, generating a rotation axis, calculating angles for multiple drivers’ sizes, and automatically displaying required optical volume.
  • Objectively qualify the image quality and compare several technical options, scoring the optical and vision performance.
  • Validate the compliance against your acceptance criteria and create a complete simulation of the driver’s perception.
  • Speos Human Vision allows users to adjust displayed levels to fit with monitor maximum capabilities and set contrasts so that details seen on screen match with details are seen in real life.
    • Human Vision algorithms adjust automatically based on the luminance level constraint in the results.
    • Human Vision and 1:1 luminance are compatible with HDR10 displays for unmatched accuracy in color and contrasts. Stereoscopic (3D) displays and VR-HMDs are also supported to deliver true size and depth perception.
  • Speos Live Preview interface allows users to experience real-time simulation results. Powered by GPU-Compute with Nvidia GPUs Speos Live Preview enables users to:
    • See the result from the beginning of the simulation, browse results from available sensors, and review light levels in false color or true visual aspects in Human Vision.
    • Save results any time to further explore and measure in Photometric Labs.
    • Change most optical properties at any time, and with one click, restart the simulation.

Ray Tracing

  • Understand ray behavior instantly and see the impact of modeling change as the ray path updates upon design modification.
  • Theoretical regularly sampled ray sources can design lighting concepts and manually guide the rays toward your target.
  • Visualize Ray Tracing from any light source to review and adjust your design before running any simulation.

Ray Propagation Engine

  • Reciprocity of the direct and inverse propagation modes guarantees the accuracy of results whatever the mode selected.
  • Simulations permit the materialization and testing out an optical system by propagating rays through the key components of the optical simulation (materials, sources, sensors).
  • Light Expert offers the possibility to visualize interactions between light and the different geometries of the optical system to identify potential causes of stray light, ghost images, and reflections.
  • The stray light analysis capabilities of Speos permit designers to understand the behavior of the rays before they reach a sensor: all paths the light follows as well as the contribution of each sequence.
  • Result Layering: The rays integrated by the different sensors can be analyzed by separating the elements contributing to the simulation results.
    • The impact of the different sources involved in the propagation, for instance to identify which one contributes to a hot spot.
    • The impact of specific faces of the geometries involved during the propagation, optimizes efficiency of the design surface.
    • The impact of the different optical sequences followed by the rays during the propagation, identifies stray light causes.

Speos provides different methods to model light sources.

  • Most LED manufacturers provide measured ray files in the Speos format can define sources, similar to luminaire suppliers with the IESNA LM-63 and Eulumdat files.
  • Complex source emission can be considered at the LED chip level, accounting for the surrounding optics during the calculations.
  • For physics-based renderings, model ambient sources to add realism to the scene, as well as display sources for car interior simulations.
  • Thermal emissivity of different geometries can also be considered for simulations in the infrared full spectral bandwidth.
  • Using reflection or refraction properties, Speos offers an easy-to-use interface to design Reflector or Lens with variable grid definition (rectangular, circular, stripes, honeycomb, freeform type).
  • Geometrically define each pillow or by set the optical beam spread target with embedded optimization.
  • Speos offers the best-in-class lightguide design tool to smoothly control prism parameters variation and ensure efficient and homogeneous light distribution.
  • In combination with Speos GPU, users can instantaneously check the photometry of its design by facets or for the whole reflector
  • Volume behavior of materials covers the spectral absorption, scattering, fluorescence, refractive indexes, gradient indexed, and complex refractive indexes, either as models or tabular input.
  • Surface behavior description extends from simple Gaussian/specular models to measured spectral 3D BxDFs, anisotropic, retroreflective, iridescent, polarized properties.
  • Achieve complex behaviors with spatial variation, multilayer textures with property blending, or dedicated plugins like the LSWM to use optical gratings from Lumerical simulation.
  • Speos offers dedicated capabilities to simulate and assess camera and lidar raw signals in a driving environment.
  •  Starting from a digital mock-up, including surrounding geometries, sensor layout and surrounding targets, camera and LiDAR systems can be physically modeled.
  • Integrated into the CAD platform, data acquired by sensor systems can be simulated, considering its characteristics and constraints.
  • Complete analyses can be performed for different sensor configurations on various scenarios.
  • Speos allows STOP analysis to evaluate the impact of mechanical deformation due to temperature variation on photometric performance.
  • Using Workbench integration, Speos and Mechanical connect automatically update the original design with the deformed geometries coming from Mechanical simulation.

Speos is part of the Ansys Optics collection, providing interoperability and design workflow solutions with OpticStudio and Lumerical.

  • OpticStudio can export optical lens system as a reduced model called Speos Lens System (.optdistortion file) for accurate and fast camera simulation. Please refer to the OpticStudio page to know more about OpticStudio’s capabilities.
  • Lumerical simulation grates simulation using SubWavelength Lumerical plugin. Lumerical is also useful in combination with Speos for accurate CMOS simulation. Please refer to Lumerical page to know more about Lumerical’s capabilities.
  • Speos Light Box permits the export and import geometries along with the associated optical data:
    • Sources
    • Optical properties (material, surface properties)
    • Meshing properties (geometries stored as meshes)
  • Light Box can handle data exchange between suppliers and customers. It is compatible with multi-CAD platforms where Ansys software is integrated (SpaceClaim, Speos for NX, Speos for Creo Parametric).
  • The file format is encrypted so content cannot be edited outside Speos. Its security can also be reinforced with a password.

Speos RESOURCES & EVENTS

Featured Webinars

On Demand Webinar
Ansys
Using Contrast Optimization to Optimize MTF Performance

Join Ansys Senior Application Engineer Christophe Weisse on October 12th to demonstrate how OpticStudio's Contrast Optimization capability solves these problems by providing an alternative method for optimizing MTF.

On Demand Webinar
Design and Validation of Augmented Reality Systems with Ansys Optical tools
Design and Validation of Augmented Reality Systems with Ansys Optical tools

In this webinar we demonstrate how our best-in-class optical tools, including Zemax, Speos, and Lumerical, can work together for interoperability workflows in the design of an AR system requiring precise subwavelength photonic components, characterization of optical components, and analysis of human vision.

On Demand Webinar
Ansys optiSLang, Lumerical and Speos
Ansys 2023 R2: Ansys Speos What’s New

In this webinar we review the latest feature updates in: Productivity Enhancements, Speos GPU Acceleration, Results Experience, Sensors and Autonomy, Optical Part Design and Ansys Integration features.

On Demand Webinar
Speos Lens System
Modeling the Impact of Stray Light on the Imaging Performance of a Smartphone Camera System

Finding paths of unwanted light that does not enter a system through a designed path before reaching the image plane is the most critical part of stray light analysis. This webinar reviews effects of stray light on a smartphone camera system and introduce a method of straylight analysis from optomechanical components and how to design and model them using the Ansys Optics Solution.

On Demand Webinar
Surgical Lighting – Photometric Requirements Validation
Surgical Lighting – Photometric Requirements Validation

This webinar demonstrates how to use Speos to simulate surgical luminaires and check the photometric result and conformity with the photometric parameters according to norm EN 60601-2-41 l.

ON DEMAND WEBINAR
Ansys logo on black background
Modeling the Human Eye and Designing Presbyopia Correction in Zemax and Speos

Multifocal contact lenses have gained increasing interest in recent years as the preferred method of correction due to the demanding lifestyle of the digital era, their cosmetic advantages over spectacles, and the increased practitioner confidence to fit them.

In this webinar, we demonstrate how to model the human eye and design multifocal contact lenses for presbyopia correction using the eye model.



White Papers

physics based sensor validation

Shedding New Light on UVC Disinfection

Disinfection product engineers can first use Ansys SpaceClaim to recreate highly complex physical environments, then leverage Ansys SPEOS to simulate the application of UVC light to that space.



Videos


Ansys software is accessible

It's vital to Ansys that all users, including those with disabilities, can access our products. As such, we endeavor to follow accessibility requirements based on the US Access Board (Section 508), Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and the current format of the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT).

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