Evolutionary Design ofMicrostructured Polymer Optical Fibres

using anArtificial Embryogeny Representation

Steven Manos1,2

Leon Poladian3, Maryanne Large1

s.manos@ucl.ac.uk

1. Optical Fibre Technology Centre, University of Sydney.

2. Centre for Computational Science, University College London.

3. School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney.

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

: Applications of Optical Fibres :

- Long distance telecommunications

- Computer networks

- Automotive and aeronautical

- Electrical current measurement

- Temperature and strain sensing

- Medical (lasers and endoscopy)

New functionality =more complex designs?

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

: How does design relate to application? :

The behaviour of light depends on this internal structureGECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

Previous MOF designs using genetic algorithms

Early examples focus on hexagonal arrays, resulting in low dimensional searches in nice landscapes

- 2 to 6 real parameters

Optimisation rather than design.Preconception of the design type.

Lots of holes! Does it needs to be this complex?

d

Manos et. al. ACOFT 2002 Kerrinckx et. al. Opt. Exp. 2004 Poletti et. al. Opt. Exp. 2005

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

: Motivation for Design :Development of a representation to match the diverse

range of MPOFs which can be manufactured

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

• All candidate solutions satisfy constraints– No individuals are wasted during evolution

• Easy to achieve symmetry and diversity

• Built in manufacturing constraints can be updated based on empirical feedback - evolved designs can be reliably manufactured!

No preconception about design type or complexity

:Embryogeny representation - Advantages:

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

: Single-moded fibres :

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

First mode (confined) Second mode (leaky)

Single-moded fibres support the propagation of only the fundamental mode.

These fibres are important in applications such as high- bandwidth communications, temperature sensing and strain sensing.

By discovering fibres that don’t have a typical hexagonal design, we can start doing more interesting things with them.

Typical hexagonal design

Single-moded operationStandard design since the early 1990’s

Evolved single-mode designs - NEW themes

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

All designs have confined fundamental modes with lc,1 10-1 dB/m, with losses more typically being lc,1 10-3 dB/m. The loss of the second mode lc,2>104 dB/m in all cases.

All single-moded, yet phenotypically different.

: Manufactured single-mode MPOF :

Designs were evolved which are simpler than previous designs, and as a result are easier to manufacture.

Provided us with a rich set of never before seen single-moded microstructured fibre designs to investigate

further.

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

: A different fitness function :

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

Highly multi-moded fibres designed for use in LANs and other short-distance high-bandwidth applications.

‘GIMP 1’

‘GIMP 3’

Hand-designed fibre.

GA-designed GIMPOF, fewer holes, easier to manufacture.

Experimental results for GA-designedhigh-bandwidth MPOF

Bandwidth of 10 GHz, or up to 20 Gb/s

Exceeds the performance specifications of polymer fibres by other manufacturers such as Fuji, Optimedia and Lucina.

Production costs are much lower.

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

Patended design

: Human Competitive Results :

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT - NEW

Developed a representation with manufacturing constraints automatically built in. No preconception about the types of of designs was made. Opened up the design space.

Used vector modelling to simulate the behaviour of light in these complex fibres. A robust parallel implementation of the GA meant a turnaround within 2-3 days.

REAL WORLD RESULTS - NEW

Evolved single-mode designs with novel symmetries and hole patterns, and fewer holes.

Ultimately, we’re evolving optical fibres with optical characteristics that are competitive with pre-existing products on the market.

: Human Competitive Results :

GECCO2007 Human Competitive Design Awards, 9th July, 2007, UCL, London, England

ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT - NEW

Developed a representation with manufacturing constraints automatically built in. No preconception about the types of of designs was made. Opened up the design space.

Used vector modelling to simulate the behaviour of light in these complex fibres. A robust parallel implementation of the GA meant a turnaround within 2-3 days.

REAL WORLD RESULTS - NEW

Evolved single-mode designs with novel symmetries and hole patterns, and fewer holes.

Ultimately, we’re evolving optical fibres with with optical characteristics that are competitive with pre-existing products on the market.

Thank you!