Efficient Sensitivity Analysis of Optical Structures Using Finite Element Method

We present a new efficient technique for the sensitivity analysis of waveguide structures with arbitrary shapes. Those waveguides are analyzed using the Finite Element Method (FEM). Our technique uses the solution obtained by any FEM solver and without the need of performing any extra FEM simulation, it gives accurate results for the sensitivity of the modal parameters with respect to all the design parameters. This is far more efficient than the traditional finite difference techniques for estimating the sensitivities. The finite difference methods require a number of extra simulations proportional to the number of design parameters.