Introduction to Augmented Reality Glasses

Building augmented reality glasses that feel and look like normal glasses but deliver impeccable display performance at a reasonable price is a difficult task. One technology that shows significant benefits over competing display technologies is laser beam scanning (LBS). This technology uses a combined RGB laser beam that hits a tiny oscillating MEMS mirror, giving rise to a picture to be displayed. LBS has turn into a key component within the AR product roadmaps of industry players as a result of its brightness, system size, and power efficiency.

The Challenge of Cost and Production

One of the fundamental cost aspects for the essential light engines in AR glasses is the variety of processing steps of their assembly. To address this, OQmented is developing a high-volume manufacturing process for next-generation products. This process involves assembling light engines on a wafer level, enabling the simultaneous integration of 1000’s of sunshine engines per wafer while significantly reducing the variety of processing steps.

Partnership for Innovation

OQmented has partnered with Brilliance, a laser expert, to further enhance their production process. Brilliance processes its ultra-compact, fully integrated RGB laser chip on a wafer scale, which requires extreme accuracy. This makes the laser chips an ideal fit for combining with OQmented’s light engines on a wafer level. Both firms share a vision of achieving the last word integration level using standard semiconductor processes, enabling a path to high-volume, high-yield production.

Advantages of the Partnership

The integration of Brilliance’s laser chips into OQmented’s light engines offers several benefits. The laser chips feature a really efficient RGB color combination with perfect control over color overlap, spot shape, and size. This integration doesn’t require any further optical components, facilitating the alignment process for wafer-level integration and reducing the general system size while improving its efficiency and the projections’ image quality.

Quotes from Key Figures

"Partnering with Brilliance provides a superb opportunity to perfect our wafer-level production process," said Thomas von Wantoch, co-CEO and co-founder of OQmented. "Integrating their laser chips into our light engines completely on wafer level probably saves costs of about one order of magnitude compared to traditional production processes. We are very excited concerning the additional possibilities that this partnership opens up."

Tim Tiek, CEO and co-founder of Brilliance, added, "We are thrilled to work with OQmented on creating the last word miniature laser projector that has all of it: highest efficiency, super brightness, and optimal beam performance, offering a path to mass production using standard semiconductor processes. I’m convinced this partnership will bring AR projection a big step further and look ahead to delivering our first joint development kits later this 12 months."

Conclusion

The partnership between OQmented and Brilliance is a big step towards making augmented reality glasses more cost-effective and accessible. By developing a high-volume manufacturing process and integrating Brilliance’s laser chips into OQmented’s light engines, they’re paving the way in which for the mass production of AR glasses using standard semiconductor processes. This collaboration has the potential to bring AR projection to the subsequent level, offering higher efficiency, brightness, and beam performance. With the expected delivery of their first joint development kits later this 12 months, the longer term of AR glasses looks promising.