Change log

Updates for Ver3.3.5

Bug fixes

Fixed a bug where an error would occur when there was no film in the stack during needle search.

Updates for Ver3.3.4

Bug fixes

Fixed a bug where an error would occur when adding Material on the needle search parameter screen.
Fixed a bug where an error would occur if there was an extremely thick absorption film.

Improvement

Improved calculation speed.
The needle search algorithm has been slightly changed.

Updates for Ver3.3.3 Demo

Bug fixes

Fixed a bug where an error occurred when the angle of incidence was 45 degrees or more.

Updates for Ver3.3.2

Bug fixes

Fixed a bug where an error occurred if the period or magnification of the periodic layer was changed while the stack window was displayed.
Fixed a bug where an error occurred when the period of the periodic layer was extremely large (about several thousand).

Updates for Ver3.3.1

Bug fixes

Fixed a bug that caused an error when selecting inhomogeneity in nk analysis of mono layer film.
Fixed a bug where the home position of the film thickness change slide bar would change when you press the apply button on the main window.
The display characters have been slightly modified.

Updates for Ver3.3.0

Spectrum types and units

The following spectrum types and units are now supported.

Spectrum types Units
Wavelength Å, nm, μm, mm
Frequency PHz, THz, GHz
Wave number cm-1, μm-1, 2π/cm
Angular frequency rad/fs
Energy eV, keV
g-Number λ/λ0
Spectrum type selection screen

R, T, A units

You can now select units for reflectance(R), transmittance(T), and absorption(A).

Units for reflectance, transmittance, and absorption
0-1, %, dB
RTA unit selection screen

Optical density

Added support for optical density (OD) calculation.

OD selection screen

Units of film thickness

Added μm and mm to the physical film thickness units.

Film thickness types Units
Physical thickness Å, nm, μm, mm
Optical thickness FWOT, QWOT
Film thickness unit selection screen

Bug fixes

Fixed an issue where an error would occur in regions where a decimal separator other than a period was used.
Fixed a bug where input after the second decimal place was not reflected due to the thickness of the substrate or medium in the stack.
Fixed a bug where an error would occur when the number of layers was large (about several thousand layers).
Fixed other minor bugs.

Functional improvements and specification changes

The "Deviation" in the optimization results has been changed to "Merit (merit function)".
\(Merit = \sqrt{ {1 \over N} \sum_{i=1}^{N}(T_i-T'_i)^2 } \)
N: Number of target, Ti: Calculated value, T'i: Target value
\(Merit = Deviation / \sqrt{ N } \)

The optimization global search algorithm has been slightly changed.
The optimization needle search now produces slightly more results (sometimes it doesn't produce as many results).
Projects now also save and restore numerical data window.
You can now change values such as film thickness using the mouse wheel.
Almost all values, not just the film thickness, can be changed using the mouse wheel.
This is disabled by default to prevent incorrect operations.
[Tools] - [Options] - [Others] - Check "Enable change value with mouse wheel" to use it.
The film thickness change slide bar can now be hidden.
[Tools] - [Options] - [SlideBar and buttons] - "Uses a film thickness change slide bar. "
Windows 7 and 8 are no longer supported. Please use with Windows 10 or 11.
Fixed an issue where TFV version 3.2.7 would not start due to an error on Windows 7 (but is not supported).

Latest version download (customers only)

Updates for Ver3.2.7

Fixed a bug that the result was not displayed correctly when setting the same film data or no film multiple times in stack optimization.

Updates for Ver3.2.6

Improved fitting performance for n and k analysis of substrate and monolayer film.

Updates for Ver3.2.5

Fixed a bug that Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V copy and paste did not work in cells of the main window for Ver3.2.4.

Updates for Ver3.2.4

Fixed a bug that caused an error in the optimization target when the Input type: Continuous(IncidentAngle).
Fixed a bug that the layout of the user line window gradually shifts.
Supports Olympus USPM-RU-W CSV files by reading spectrophotometer files.

Updates for Ver3.2.1

Fixed a bug where the xy value was plotted when the a*b* chromaticity diagram was selected in the manufacturing error analysis graph.
Fixed a bug that an error occurs when Ra, Rp… on the stack screen is unchecked in the color calculation.

What's new in Ver3.2

n and k calculation for substrate and film

It is now possible to calculate the nk of substrates and metal films.
The following 4 types of calculations can be performed.

  1. Calculate refractive index of substrate without absorption
    Calculate the refractive index of a substrate without films. It is used when there is no absorption on the substrate. A single-sided matte substrate or double-sided polished substrate is required.
  2. Calculate refractive index, absorption coefficient and internal transmittance of substrate
    Calculate the refractive index of a substrate without films. It is used when substrate has absorption. Both single-sided matte substrate and double-sided polished substrate are required.
  3. n and k analysis of monolayer film
    From the spectral reflectance and spectral transmittance, n, k and film thickness (d) of the film are analyzed by curve fitting to the dispersion formula.
    Added an option to analyze only normal dispersion (dispersion in which the refractive index increases as the wavelength becomes shorter).
    It is now possible to calculate each measurement data of "front reflection", "back reflection", and "transmission" even with different wavelengths and different measurement points.
  4. Calculate n and k of monolayer metal film
    Calculate n and k of the metal film from the front surface reflectance and the back-surface reflectance. The substrate must be thick enough and have a zero transmittance.

Dispersion formula

Two types of dispersion formula have been added.

  • SellmeierX1
    \[n(λ) = \sqrt{ 1 + {A_0λ^2 \over λ^2-{A_3}^2} + {A_1λ^2 \over λ^2-{A_4}^2} + {A_2λ^2 \over λ^2-{A_5}^2} } \]
  • Forouhi-Bloomer
    \[n(E) = n(∞) + {B_0E+C_0 \over E^2 - BE + C} \] \[k(E) = {A(E-E_g)^2 \over {E^2 - BE + C}} \] \[B_0 = {A \over Q}{({-B^2 \over 2} + E_gB - {E_g}^2 + C)} \] \[C_0 = {A \over Q}{\left(({E_g}^2 + C){B \over 2}-2E_gC\right)} \] \[Q = {1 \over 2}{(4C-B^2)}^{1 \over 2} \] \[E= {{hc} \over λ} \]
    h: Planck's constant, c: Light speed, The unit of E: eV.
    n(∞), Eg, A, B, C: Material constants(parameters of the dispersion formula)

Manufacturing errors analysis

When the graph type or the type such as Ra, Rs, Rp, Ta ... is switched, the same random number is used and the calculation is automatically performed.
If you want to use different random numbers, press the execute button.
In addition, it is now possible to analyze manufacturing errors for stack. When the stack window is displayed, the manufacturing error for stack is calculated. When the stack window is closed, the manufacturing error on one side (of the main window) is calculated.

Optimize

You can now target the mean if the target type is continuous.
The figure below is an example in which the average value of Ra from wavelength 500 nm to 600 nm is targeted at 50%.
Mean target

Import ZEMAX glass data File

You can import the glass data (AGF file) of the optical design software ZEMAX.
From the main window menu, select [File] - [Import] - [Import Zemax OpticStudio glass catalog (AGF file)…].

Glass data update

The glass data has been updated to the latest version.
SCHOTT: January 2019
OHARA: August 3, 2020
HOYA: March 14, 2020
HIKARI: April 1, 2020
SUMITA: July 15, 2020
CDGM: September 2020

Design data sample

Added samples of design data.

Bug fixes

The stability of operation has been improved by reducing the amount of memory used.
Solved the problem that it was difficult to enter the decimal point in the center wavelength and incident angle fields.
Fixed the problem that the evaporation control may not respond for a long time when inputting the filter wavelength.
Other minor bug fixes.

Specification change

In the color calculation, the aspect ratio of the chromaticity diagram is fixed.
If you want to use the conventional display method, go to [Chart format]-[Options] and uncheck "Fix chart aspect ratio".
All window positions are now memorized by selecting [Tools]-[Save window position] from the main window menu.

What's new in Ver3.1

Color calculation

The color matching function has been updated to conform to ISO 11664-1: 2007.
Compared to the previous version of the color matching function ISO 10526: 1991, the calculation result is slightly different because the number of digits after the decimal point is increased.

User-created color matching functions can now be used.

Color calculation method can be selected from "360-830nm, 1nm interval", "380-780nm, 1nm interval", "380-780nm, 5nm interval (default)".
Set in [Tools]-[Options]-[Color]-[Calculation range and step].
* Normally, calculations at 5nm intervals are sufficient.

Added z to the numerical value of chromaticity coordinates of XYZ color system.

Added Dominant Wavelength (λd), Complementary Wavelength (λc), Excitation Purity (Pe), and Colorimetric Purity (Pc).

Dispersion formula

Added Cauchy to dispersion formula of k.

Importing Essential Macleod data

Added the function to import Essential Macleod Material and Substrate.
The import screen is displayed by selecting [File]-[Import] from the menu.

Essential Macleod design data (dds file) can be read.
From the menu, open the dds file with [File]-[Open].
The center wavelength, incident angle, substrate, incident medium, number of layers, film thickness/material of each layer, and notes are loaded.
If a substrate/material with the same name does not exist in TFV, the substrate/material will be imported automatically.
* Please note that the calculation results will be different if Essential Macleod and TFV have the same substrate/material with different dispersion data.

Export to optical design software ZEMAX

Added the function to export design values or calculation results to ZEMAX coating files.
From the menu, select [File]-[Export] to display the export screen.

Bug fixes

Fixed a bug that the initial light source at startup could not be selected with [Tool]-[Option]-[Color].
Fixed a bug that the needle search doesn't work when the first side of the stack has no film.
Other minor bug fixes and improvements.

What's new in Ver3.0

Film thickness display format

Both optical film thickness and physical film thickness are now displayed.
The unit of physical thickness can be selected in nm and Å.
The unit of optical thickness can be selected in nd/λ(FWOT) or QWOT.

Number of sheets

The number of sheets in the main window has increased to 20.

Optimization

You can now optimize colors and stacks.
It now displays optimization history at needle search.

Manufacturing error

You can now set the amount of change for each layer.
It is now possible to calculate when changing randomly with normal (Gaussian) distribution.

n and k analysis

Analysis wavelength range can now be set.
There were cases where analysis could not be done in the previous version, but we improved it so that it can be analyzed as much as possible.

High resolution display compatible 4K ready!

Even characters with high resolution display are now displayed without blurring. Characters are scaled according to the Windows scaling setting.
You can also set font and font size.

Total of multiple substrates (Stack)

It is now possible to calculate multiple substrates.
With the medium to medium as one block, spectral characteristics for each block can be displayed numerically.
You can now register the internal transmittance of the substrate.

Project file

You can save the design data displayed on each sheet of the main window, the structure of the stack window, the arrangement of the window being displayed, the format of the graph, the user line, etc. as a "project" in the file.

Design data editing

You can copy-pasting of design data by selecting the cells.
You can now insert and delete layers multiple layers at once.

Addition of material data

Add the material of the Kyoto Thin-Film Materials Institute.
Al2O3(KTM), HfO2(KTM), LaF3(KTM), Ti3O5(KTM), ZrO2(KTM), ZRT2(KTM)

Many other features have been added.

New Features Manual for Version 3.0(pdf)

Bugfixes and improved in version 3.0.2 to 3.0.4

Fixed the bug that only the first wavelength range is valid when multiple wavelength ranges are set, and the error occurs when reading a project file.
In the manufacturing error analysis, the problem that an error occurs when all units of ΔT, Δn, Δk are set to σ: standard deviation has been corrected.
When ΔT is increased in manufacturing error analysis, the film thickness is improved to be calculated as 0 when the film thickness is negative.
Improved so that Y-axis title and character of Y-axis scale do not overlap in wavelength graph and incident angle graph.

Bugfixes and improved in version 3.0.1 to 3.0.2

Stack
  Fixed a bug that is not calculated correctly when the same Sheet design is specified to multiple faces.
  Fixed a bug that caused errors in 3D graphs and color calculations.
Others
  Fine-tuning in the high resolution display environments.

What's new in Ver2.2

Optimize design

Automatically initial film design mode has been included in needle search.
[Optimize design] - [Needle Search] - [Start] - [Needle Search Parameters] - [Automatically initial design]
The "continue" function of needle search has been improved
The target value input method was improved. For example, You can input target value to xx% from xx nm to xx nm.
[Optimize design] - [Advanced target] - [Type] - [Continuous(Wavelength), Continuous(Angle)]

n and k analysis from mono layer

Inhomogeneity of n and k analyze mode has been included.
[n and k analysis from mono layer] - [Step4: Analyzing parameters] - [Analyze inhomogeneity of n, k]

Bug fixes

Fixed minor bugs.

What's new in Ver2.1

Add dispersion data

Dispersion data of resin was added.

Substrate
PCHMA, PEI, PMMA, Polycarbonate, Polystyrene, SAN
Film material
Cytop

Add dispersion formulas

The number of distributed types has been increased to all 28. All ZEMAX distributed expressions can be used.

    Dispersion formulas
Dispersion formulas
Dispersion formulas

Bug fixes

Fixed minor bugs.

Bug fix in demo version
The results of n and k analysis is now shown on the chart.

What's new in Ver2.0

Optimization

It is now possible to optimize wavelength characteristics or angle characteristics.

(1) Local search
Local search is used Levenberg-Marquardt Method for optimization thickness.
(2) Global search
Global search is used Simulated Annealing Method and Levenberg-Marquardt Method.
(3) Needle search
Needle search works by adding the needle-like layers into the design. After the needle-like layers have been added, the local search is used to optimization.
Free-hand mode
When you trace with the mouse while holding down the left button near the selected series, then the shape of series is deformed. Optimize will be started automatically when you release the left button.

Wavelength and incident angle 3D chart

You can set the custom contour.

Manufacturing error

You can use Mote Carlo simulation on the wavelength, incident angle and color chart.

n and k analysis from the mono layer measured data

You can analysis n and k from the mono layer measured data.

Inhomogeneity

You can set the inhomogeneity of n and k each layers.

Reverse side

Reverse side characteristics when the same light path from the front side can be shown on the chart simultaneously.

Both side total

The both side total on the parallel plano-substrate can be displayed.

Spectrometer data

It became possible to read the spectrophotometer measured data file directly and show on the wavelength plot chart. Relative measurement value can be converted to absolute value.

Periodic layer enhancement

The magnification of the thickness has been added in periodic layer.

Optical monitor enhancement

The functions of evaporation control have been improved. You can select the monitoring system from the back side reflection, the front side reflection and the transmission.

Electric field enhancement

The polarizations component of the electric field intensity can be selected in the chart window.

Color calculation enhancement

Add the kind of illuminant.
A, B, C, D50, D55, D65, D75, E, F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, F10, F11, F12, ID50, ID65.
Add color difference.
CIE2000.

Others

Add the Chinese-Traditional language.
Glass data updated to the latest version. Add the SUMITA and HIKARI. Total 866 kind of glass data built-in.
The quotation origin of all materials was described.
Add the converting the optical thickness and physical thickness.
Add the changing the center wavelength.
Add the Inversing the layers.
etc.

Bug fixes

Calculation mistake of the stop value in evaporation control when the thickness is optical thickness and the Evp-dn is not zero was fixed.
Color difference calculation mistake of dH* and dE94 were fixed. The sign of dL* and dC* were fixed.
Calculation mistake of the electric field intensity in p-polarization was fixed.