A new world you wear everyday: A laser light engine for augmented reality headsets
Tom Horner, 9 December 2021
LioniX International announces an integrated RGB laser light engine for retinal projection augmented reality (AR) headsets. The mm scale light engine excels not only in the brightness and quality of the images projected but also in terms of compactness.
The AR hardware market promises tens of billions of dollars of growth in the next few years. But issues with the integration of light sources threaten progress for headset developers.
Currently, AR manufacturers looking for the brightest light sources are limited to bulky separate laser diodes. This makes for inelegant headsets and makes production scaling difficult. LioniX International have integrated the highest performing laser diodes on a chip to create a tiny RGB light source that can be scaled to very high production volumes.
Even more promising, the laser engine is a complete modular solution – it combines all the optical and electronic interfaces required for direct integration into a headset.
Douwe Geuzebroek, LioniX International’s VP Marketing and Sales says:
“This is an amazing opportunity for a disruptive AR company to be the first to market with really slim and fashionable glasses and leading imaging quality.
Whilst we’re ready to hit production right now and scale to the desired volumes, we also specialize in co-developing our solutions to meet our customers’ needs. So we’re a best-of-both worlds combination of high standardization with the option to further customize the development for lead customers.”
The new RGB light engine benefits from the company’s 20 year track record in the design and assembly of photonic integrated circuit technology, especially for visible light. Equally important is LioniX’s use of novel wafer-level processes that enable production at volumes required by commercial customers.
The minute light engine integrates laser sources onto a chip for high performance, slimline AR headsets.
Ready to solder: the integrated module is ready to interface with AR systems, but can also be further customized to customer specifications.
LioniX International will be showcasing the light engine at the Photonics West and SPIE AR/VR/MR conferences in San Francisco in January 2022.
