The agreement oversees ST broadening its capaiblity to use Metalenz IP to produce advanced metasurface optics, while leveraging ST’s technology and manufacturing platform combining 300mm semiconductor and optics production, test, and qualification.
“STMicroelectronics is the unique supplier on the market offering a groundbreaking combination of optics and semiconductor technology. Since 2022, we have shipped well over 140 million metasurface optics and FlightSense modules using Metalenz IP. The new license agreement with Metalenz bolsters our technology leadership in consumer, industrial and automotive segments, and will enable new opportunities from smartphone applications like biometrics, LIDAR and camera assist, to robotics, gesture recognition, or object detection,” said Alexandre Balmefrezol, Executive Vice President and General Manager of STMicroelectronics’s Imaging Sub-Group. “Our unique model, processing optical technology in our 300mm semiconductor fab, ensures high precision, cost-effectiveness, and scalability to meet the requests of our customers for high-volume, complex applications.”
“Our agreement with STMicroelectronics has the potential to further fast-track the adoption of metasurfaces from their origins at Harvard to adoption by market leading consumer electronics companies,” added Rob Devlin, Co-Founder and CEO of Metalenz. “By enabling the shift of optics production into semiconductor manufacturing, this agreement has the possibility to further redefine the sensing ecosystem. As use cases for 3D sensing continue to expand, ST’s technology leadership in the market together with our IP leadership solidifies ST and Metalenz as the dominant forces in the emergent metasurface market we created.”
The new license agreement seeks to address the growing market opportunity for metasurface optics, which are projected to experience significant growth, reaching $2bn by 2029, driven by the industry’s role in emerging display and imaging applications.
