Lumus Ltd., a developer of reflective waveguide technology for augmented reality (AR) eyewear, is expanding its five-year long partnership with international technology group Schott AG. To support this partnership, Schott is adding a new production facility to its site in Penang, Malaysia.
“In early 2019, Lumus and Schott began a strategic partnership with the goal of enabling cost-effective, mass-scale manufacturing of the reflective waveguides featured in our Lumus 2D Maximus architecture,” Lumus CEO Ari Grobman says. “Now, Schott is processing waveguides for our next-generation Z-Lens waveguide architecture that enables us to develop even smaller, lighter AR eyeglasses with high-resolution image quality, outdoor-compatible brightness and seamless Rx integration. The success of our partnership is helping to make high-quality optical AR glasses a practical reality for the mass market.”
The announcement was made on the opening day of SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco. Schott, part of the Carl Zeiss Foundation, has operated the Malaysia plant for more than 50 years. The plant employs more than 1,000 workers and serves as a manufacturing hub for optical components, according to the company.
In the first phase of the five-year partnership with Lumus, Schott established a sampling line in Malaysia, where it developed the processing and metrology capabilities to provide customers with prototypes and better understand their manufacturing requirements, the company says. In the second phase, Schott says it focused on developing the equipment and processing platform to meet the requirements of industrial manufacturing for these customers.
As a result of these investments and the planned further expansion of the Malaysia Advanced Optics Hub, Schott says it can now support all phases of product development in consumer electronics, including proof-of-concept prototype development, engineering samples and mass-market scale manufacturing.
“This expanded partnership with Lumus represents the logical next step in Schott’s history of pioneering innovations in optics and vision technology that turn visions into a reality,” says Ruediger Sprengard, head of augmented reality at Schott. “As a global leader in waveguide components for AR, we are leveraging our expertise in melting, coating and the highest-precision processing of glass. We are committed to investing further in the expansion of our processing hub for optical components in Malaysia. With this expansion, we are well positioned to meet the growing demand in cutting-edge optics such as AR waveguides based on Lumus’ Z-lens architecture.”
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