As part of the ZEISS Ventures portfolio, tooz is an independent engineering and licensing company with clear focus and on its mission to upgrade AR / VR / MR devices with state-of-the-art optics combined with medical grade individual prescription. At SPIE, beside its own curved waveguide platform, tooz will unveil an increased prescription-based product portfolio serving the accelerated differentiation in augmented reality hardware. Beyond tooz, the ZEISS Group is since more than a decade highly engaged in various augmented reality projects, investments, and business activities. The talk will provide some exclusive insights in the broad activity landscape of a true leader in optics - driven by innovation and with a strong belief in the success of customer-centric augmented reality solutions.

In this talk, I will share the experience and lessons learned by OPPO in developing various types of XR devices. These include standalone AR, tethered AR, two generations of smart glasses, and MR glasses (VR with video passthrough). I will first discuss the design and specifications of each of our devices, and then focus on sharing our research on wearing comfort, particularly visual comfort, for different forms of devices. This research has played a significant role in shaping our product roadmap and iteration.

Advances in optic technologies have led to a sharp increase in AR/VR/MR products to the market, yet a core design challenge lingers: anchoring a computational apparatus on the most conspicuous and delicate part of the human body—the face. Design discussions in AR/VR/MR often fixate on comfort and wearability, but broadening the focus to include its impact on user identity imbues design with profound significance. Beyond meeting physical needs, considering psychological comfort becomes crucial—instilling users with confidence and pride. With a decade-long tenure at Magic Leap, Gary Shigeru Natsume has been instrumental in refining industrial design for augmented reality wearables. He'll delve into his journey, exploring design directions that shaped the iconic Magic Leap devices. These products distinguish themselves through seamless integration with the user's identity, showcasing Gary's commitment to harmonizing aesthetics with functionality.

AR and VR promise a transformative human-computer interface, seamlessly integrating with the digital world. Achieving this vision necessitates displays that seamlessly blend with reality, without compromising form factor or hindering the wearer. While advancements have been made, significant innovations in Optics, OptoElectronics, and Photonics are still required to meet the stringent demands of size, quality, and efficiency. These optical systems will likely need to emulate human perception to deliver to the limits of human perception. Eye tracking and contextual awareness are crucial for bandwidth reduction. Continuous display advancements in headsets and glasses are expected, with benefits extending to broader related imaging, sensing and computing applications. This diversification subsequently reduces the investment risks of suppliers in these new spaces. This seemingly evolutionary path will spark a revolution in material science, optics, optoelectronics, photonics, and more.

Thanks to a tremendous investment of talent and resources over more than a decade, we can now create augmented reality displays for smart glasses that deliver high performance and are all-day wearable. To convert this technology inflection into selling more than 100M AI smart glasses per year requires betting on the right team of technology players that can perform rapid system-level co-optimization, quickly scale to high volume, and integrate with the consumer’s buying experience. As AI use cases for this new platform emerge, we must focus our innovation in two areas: Getting existing AI smart glasses technology onto consumer’s faces and rapidly developing the next generation of devices.

We have fabricated waveguides in a high index, UV curable polymer resin (nd>1.7) with a 50 degree diagonal field of view and a 1.3 diopter focal length for augmented reality applications. The polymer eyepiece is more than 50% lighter than a comparable glass eyepiece with improved ruggedization and lower cost. The curve of the waveguide eliminates the need for additional refractive elements to set the virtual content depth plane, further reducing weight and expense. These waveguides leverage the knowledge and infrastructure from Magic Leap devices, expanding market opportunities for reduced field-of-view use cases.

Dispelix is a pioneer in single-layer, full-color waveguide architectures that enable compact waveguide form factors with uncompromised image quality. In this presentation Dispelix's Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Juuso Olkkonen will present the company's recent achievements in diffractive waveguide display technology. Dispelix's AI-enhanced software tools enable high brightness efficiency and image uniformity while maintaining the signature features of the company's waveguide displays: thinness, lightness, and aesthetics.

Cellid has successfully developed FOV 60+ degree waveguide with 1.2mm thickness and high MTF for AR and MR glasses. We have also added FOV50+ plastic waveguides with 1.0 mm thickness to our product lineup, expanding the range of value we can offer our customers. Our unique optical simulation technology and proprietary production technology also realize extremely clear images with high MTF and brightness efficiency. Larger FOV and clear images will deliver more immersive experiences for users. This presentation will introduce Cellid’s DOE waveguide features from a display perspective.

AR, VR, and MR glasses are all head worn devices with an ambition of integrating sensors and cameras as well as highly functional displays. Size, weight and power are crucial parameters to consider for all features. In this paper we present an update on latest results and trends in refractive waveguides seen from a mastering perspective. In addition, several use cases of how metalenses are crucial to build efficient and ultra compact sensors and cameras.

For decades the displays industry has been focused on achieving high quality black levels to optimize contrast. However, today’s emerging ‘real’ AR displays have different requirements driven by the need for providing a see-through display with a digital overlay on top of the real world. DigiLens CEO Chris Pickett will discuss the requirements of high-quality waveguide displays, such as efficiency, eye glow, and transparency – and why these constitute the ‘New Black.’ He’ll also dive into how the DigiLens platform has been integrated at the product level for enterprise applications with DigiLens ARGO, an SPIE Prism Award nominee, and how DigiLens waveguide technology can also be used for consumer AR smartglasses due to the core technology that is fundamentally scalable at low consumer price points.

AR glasses combining ultimate image quality and uncompromised wearability … only wishful thinking or is there a clear path forward? Waveguides as the fundamental concept will get us there. Two waveguide approaches have the biggest chance to win: (a) diffractive nanophotonic structures created by imprinting or etching or (b) reflective- geometric waveguides manufactured by conventional optical technologies. In this talk, SCHOTT’s advancement in providing key contributions with are presented: (a) RealView® wafers with ever increase flatness improving image quality and yield and RealView® glass with even higher refractive index enabling lightweight and cost efficient wide-field-of-view devices. (b) SCHOTT’s reflective waveguides, created in partnership with Lumus using the new Z-lens architecture, now have achieved a new level of manufacturing maturity. AR glasses combining ultimate image quality and uncompromised wearability … our industry is getting there!

Optics are everywhere, with display, imaging and communications technologies underpinning a broad range of AR / VR applications in medical, automotive, high tech and defense industries. The drive towards integration and miniaturization poses a challenge for optical elements, which can be met with emerging metalens and metasurface technology. By tailoring sub-wavelength structures on a flat surface, desired lens behavior can be implemented and unique functionality such as polarization selectivity can be enabled. The design of metalenses and metasurfaces also creates unique challenges for engineers, requiring advanced simulation tools: metalenses with billions of meta-atoms must be designed and optimized at the wavelength scale and incorporated into complex macro-scale optical systems where mechanical and thermal considerations compete with optical design requirements. Additionally, the fabrication of these lenses introduces a new paradigm, leveraging manufacturing technology commonly associated with semiconductor production. In this talk, we will explore the design and fabrication trends driving the creation of state-of-the-art metalenses and metasurfaces for AR / VR applications.

Zinn Labs leverages event sensors to bring gaze tracking to a new class of low-power smart frames and head-mounted displays. Gaze provides rich contextual data for AI systems that interact with users, enabling applications from understanding intent, or building a user interface, to optimizing display and lens systems. Zinn’s event-based gaze tracking system delivers fast and accurate performance for these applications, without the high computational cost or power of image-based approaches. This low-power, high-performance system brings a ubiquitous gaze signal to intelligent wearable devices that is enabling new applications like foveated rendering and context-aware virtual assistants that see what you see.

With the launch of Quest 3 and Ray Ban Meta in 2023, the Reality Labs team is paving the way for the future of human connection and computation. These devices are built atop years of strategic technology investment within Meta in areas such as ultra low-power, always-on sensing, machine perception systems capable of understanding your world, and an AI assistant that can leverage these technologies to provide contextually relevant value to our users. We’re not just pioneering new kinds of devices — we’re creating the future for years to come. However, building for the future involves taking bold risks in both technology development and predicting customer needs. Customers expect their devices to work and create value around the clock, with minimal interference with their day to day lives. As we build new-to-the-world technologies, we must systematically de-risk them to ensure predictable performance of our devices for our customers worldwide.

While Computer-Generated Holography (CGH) has the potential to solve a variety of issues for AR/VR display, due to its ability to accurately reproduce the full range of 3D visual cues, the technology has always been held back by high computational overheads and low image quality. In this talk we present our latest work on real-time generation of 4K amplitude holograms. These new methods provide image quality on a par with conventional display while delivering the full 3D effect to the observer. We show that our new prototype holographic projector delivers full colour 3D holographic images with a resolution in excess

With over 60% of the population already wearing glasses, the stage is set for replacing traditional frames with smart glasses that can render key aspects of our digital lives available at a glance. Mainstream adoption of smart glasses will only come by giving people a robust range of features and options. This talk will discuss a number of considerations you need to understand to support the successful adoption of this technology. These include the technical tradeoffs underpinning critical features like size, weight, battery longevity, usability and style. We'll also cover more advanced topics, such as scalability factors, how different waveguide options like forward light management (eye glow) can impact design, and how to navigate supply chain issues for a successful prescription solution. Get insights from a well-established AR industry leader and build a roadmap for success.

Over half of the people wear prescription glasses every day, and the eyewear market is worth nearly $200 billion as of 2022. In the talk, we'll explore ophthalmic solutions coupled with display technologies, and discuss how we can leverage the existing prescription lens processes towards an all-day AR device.

Mr. Jeonghun Ha, CTO of LetinAR, the inventor of PinTILT™ technology, will present recent progress regarding the mass production of injection-molded plastic AR waveguides. PinTILT™ technology comprises the best advantages of current AR optical systems. While maintaining a small form factor of diffractive/holographic waveguides, PinTILT™ optics deliver high-quality AR images with superior color uniformity and high text readability of birdbath/freeform optics.

LusoVU has been developing HIDO smart glasses to deliver genuinely elegant augmented reality with a wide field of view. We will present the recent results of the beta product development, focusing primarily on all aspects of comfort necessary for a successful product. We will showcase tests conducted with potential users and discuss the trade-off between comfort and the use case features of this type of product.

LCoS is poised to be the dominant display technology in AR for years to come. Avegant first introduced the AG-30L2 at Photonics West 2023 and is now the smallest LCoS engine in mass production. The AG-30L2 has successfully been integrated into many products, waveguides, and reference designs across the consumer electronics industry. This year Avegant is introducing a new illumination architecture that will significantly improve LCoS display performance while simultaneously reducing overall power.

The AR/VR seems more and more crowded, but the number of platforms and headsets is actually shrinking. The market is consolidating and it's getting more and more difficult for newcomers to compete. We will dive in the details of what it really takes to bring an idea to an actual product. Some anecdotes and scars will be shared.

The end game in AR necessitates vision-friendly true 3D virtual imagery seamlessly combined with the real world through a normal-looking, prescription lens. This talk will introduce CREAL's latest sequential light-field display system, designed specifically to tackle these challenges. CREAL's advancements are paving the way for a more seamless and comfortable AR experience with the first commercially viable AR display in 2024.

Recent Lightspace invention of multi layer prismatic optical light shaping devices enable development of miniature laser light based image engines. New optical architecture can be used to create highly effective DLP or LCOS based image modulators usable with multi-focal and waveguide near eye AR displays. Novel architecture substantially increases image engine light efficiency and reduces dimensions.

AR glasses are considered the most crucial devices to replace smartphones in the next generation. To meet commercial demands, AR glasses require micro-displays that offer ultra-high brightness(>100k nits) and pixel-density(>4000ppi) while maintaining a compact size(<1cc). Among various micro-display technologies, microLED technology has been identified as the most suitable for meeting the requirements of AR glasses. This presentation will introduce various full-color microLED micro-display technologies, with a further focus on the unique µ-PixeLED solutions developed by PlayNitride.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of AR/VR/MR, the volume and sensitivity of data generated present unprecedented challenges to our ecosystem. Data privacy appears as one antidote to such a challenge. As technologists, we bear a fundamental responsibility to safeguard the privacy and integrity of user data and prioritize human values in our designs. This talk will address technological and policy implications for data privacy, opening the dialogue to encourage AR/VR/MR technologists to look at the way they shape the world.

A micro-display must couple light as efficiently as possible into the capture cone defined by the AR waveguide. There is a large efficiency advantage that can be achieved by using micro-lenses over each pixel to bend more light into the capture cone, but only if the light emitters are much smaller than the micro-lens diameter. For a typical pixel pitch of ~3um, this means we want emitters ~1um. This talk with compare different ways to make very small Red pixels for use in micro-displays, including GaN, QD, and AlInGaP based approaches.

Emissive OLED-on-silicon microdisplays have been considered being opaque only so far. However, modern and advanced silicon CMOS process nodes are increasingly made on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates. By separating the SOI handle wafer from the buried oxide (BOX) layer (that has the active silicon on top) and applying space-cautious layout design of the CMOS active devices as well as wiring layers it is possible to achieve semitransparent, high-resolution CMOS backplanes for microdisplays. Similar to regular OLED-on-silicon the emissive frontplane becomes embedded by wafer-level OLED post-processing. Yet, depending on pixel density and array layout a microdisplay transparency of >20% can be achieved now. Consequently, the semi-transparent microdisplay becomes the optical combiner itself, eliminating the exit pupil expander (EPE), which drastically improves the optical efficiency from the light source into the eye box.

Himax Display, Inc. had developed a 1024x1024 0.24” ultra-compact high-brightness color-sequential front-lit LCOS device. The volume defined from the outermost dimension can be <0.5c.c. with <1g weight. The brightness reaches up to 190k nits with LED power at 500mW (110k nits at 300mW LED power). We believe with such compact package and high brightness level, it can support most of the 2D waveguides in the market of AR glasses. The excellent color performance with 140% sRGB color gamut ensure great image quality.

The applications that will spur mass adoption of AR technologies require all-day battery life, and they require very light weight. Until now, these attributes have been mutually exclusive in AR eyewear. ActiveLook from MICROOLED addresses this constraint with low power consumption, yet high brightness microdisplays. This breakthrough unlocks the chance to commercialize AR for all high value applications. Beyond technical and functional requirements, ActiveLook also delivers an open platform for development with the right cost-benefit economics. MICROOLED's Eric Marcellin-Dibon will review some of the unique aspects of the ActiveLook platform for "LightAR," and highlight ease of development and roadmap integration for a wide range of players from device and hardware manufacturers to smartphone application developers.

Laser Beam Scanning microdisplays (LBS) offer the advantages of high brightness with millions of nits, high efficiency, high contrast, ultra compact size and high resolution. That makes this display technology attractive for smooth integration into stylish all-day wearable AR smartglasses. In combination with diffractive waveguides or other combiners this technology enables to realize AR smartglasses with large eyebox and high contrast even at bright daylight. Besides presenting an ultra-compact full-color display light engine that includes RGB laser, optics, 2D MEMS mirror and ASICs we will also report on scalability of resolution, field of view, brightness and other characteristic advantages of this display technology.

Explore the cutting-edge world of polymer micro-optics manufacturing with Sony DADC in this presentation. Delve into the advanced capabilities that Sony DADC brings to the forefront, showcasing their expertise in crafting intricate polymer micro-optics. Gain insights into the innovative techniques and technologies employed by Sony DADC, highlighting the company's pivotal role in shaping the future of optical manufacturing. Don't miss the opportunity to discover how Sony DADC is pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the realm of polymer micro-optics, paving the way for new applications and advancements in optical technology.

With the established integration of camera sensors in phones, the focus of cameras development until recently has been driven by resolution increase. The more recent expansion of the imaging sensors to new application pushes the arising need of fully specialized devices. AR/VR is typically a new challenging paradigm, with the need to sense accurately the full body position (eyes, hands, heads, face,…), with no latencies, for better user experience in full comfort: the device serving human and not the opposite. As a wearable device, the challenge of size, weight and autonomy is very critical. We developed image sensors especially engineered with innovative solutions for AR/VR.

For AR/VR/MR, Nanoimprinting technology is being adopted as the lithography process of choice. This is a cost-effective solution offering optimum pattern fidelity, especially for non-Manhattan/Curvilinear structures. The pattern must be created as a 3D profile on a master, which is then used to stamp copies of them on the actual device material. This is achieved at Toppan by using the most advanced in-house owned Ebeam Lithography (EBL) fleet of equipment combined with state-of-the-art etching tools and techniques to meet the special requirements for gratings and metalens applications, for example. We will show the benefits that the well-established industry environment of photomask manufacturing brings to the ARVRMR sector. We will describe how, by using advanced semiconductor photomask imaging technology in a photomask manufacturing environment, we can deliver industrial quality grade master molds repeatedly for ARVRMR applications.

The AGC Group, leading global material and solution provider, is providing several optical components for AR/MR market, such as glass wafer for waveguide and diffractive optical element or glass diffuser for censor application. For waveguide application, glass wafers with high refractive index and transmittance are required for wide field of view and bright image. New Glass wafer with M100 series of high refractive index have been developed and are just offering to the market. Also, our studying a capability for optical simulation and waveguide-prototyping enables feedback to our materials development from AR/MR device view. In the presentation, we will introduce our product lineup and technical solution.

Adhesives play an essential and often underestimated role in the manufacturing process of augmented and virtual reality devices. In addition to their core objective of bonding different components, modern multifunctional adhesives can perform a variety of additional tasks, potentially unlocking new design possibilities to foster e.g. miniaturization, weight reduction or smart assembly processes. This talk aims to highlight some adhesive key functions and their benefits towards mass-producible and cost-efficient consumer-grade devices, with a focus on AR.

As the augmented reality (AR) market matures and production volumes increase, the yield and process stability of imprinted waveguides become increasingly critical. This presentation will explore how Inkron has leveraged advanced optical materials to optimize the nanoimprint lithography (NIL) process, resulting in improved yield, process stability, and optical performance. Simultaneously, we will showcase how these material advancements enhance optical clarity and contrast, enabling the creation of more immersive and realistic AR experiences.

In this industry talk, we will provide a comprehensive overview of AR waveguide manufacturing processes, focusing on the critical phases in wafer-level nano-optics production. The discussion will navigate through both the Front End of Line (FEOL) and Back End of Line (BEOL) processes, covering essential steps like master fabrication, nanoimprinting lithography, laser dicing, edge blackening, and stacking. Key techniques such as Electron Beam Lithography (EBL) and Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL) will be explored, emphasizing their crucial roles in nano-optics manufacturing. The presentation will use AR waveguides as case studies to illustrate these processes, with a specific emphasis on the significance of NIL.

Achieving high efficiency and a uniform eye box (EB) is critical for AR glasses, and one of the ways to achieve these goals is to use duty cycle, depth and structure modulated diffractive waveguides. However, the challenging task is to achieve minimal and uniform residual layer thickness across and within the waveguides. In this presentation we will discuss the effectiveness of SUSS inkjet and nanoimprint solutions in solving the manufacturing complexities.

In order to realize the lightweight, downsizing, quality and safety improvements necessary for the next generation of XR devices, material innovations are necessary. Mitsui Chemicals is developing a diverse portfolio of new optical materials targeting next generation XR devices and inventive optical solution technologies. Kenji Iida will present Mitsui Chemicals optical material solutions and new product development trends through introducing Mitsui’s optical products : “APELTM” which is a cyclic olefin copolymer, “StructBondTM” which is a platform of optical adhesives, “DiffrarTM” which is the newly developed, high refractive index, extremely flat polymer substrate for optical waveguides, nano imprint materials and new optical lens material using an innovative process.

The AR Alliance is the place where concrete work takes place to harmonize approaches for advancing, unifying and growing the global AR supply chain and accelerating innovation. Experts in the trenches of hardware development for augmented reality come together through the AR Alliance to trade lessons learned and market experiences, bounce ideas off one another and explore what’s working and what isn’t.