Metalenz and STMicroelectronics announced a new licensing arrangement. The deal increases ST’s capacity to employ Metalenz IP to create sophisticated metasurface optics while utilizing ST’s exclusive technology and manufacturing platform that combines the production, test and qualification of 300mm semiconductors and optics.
The new licensing agreement intends to address the expanding market opportunity for metasurface optics, which is expected to rise significantly and reach $2 billion by 2029*. This growth is mostly due to the industry’s involvement in developing imaging and display applications. (Optical Metasurfaces, Yole Group, 2024 report).
A new license agreement makes it possible for metasurface optics to be used in a wide range of high-volume consumer, automotive, and industrial applications, from robotics, gesture recognition, and object detection to smartphone applications like biometrics, LIDAR, and camera assistance.
The deal increases ST’s capacity to employ Metalenz IP to create sophisticated metasurface optics while utilizing ST’s exclusive technology and manufacturing platform that combines the production, testing, and qualification of 300mm semiconductors and optics.
Leadership Comments
“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,” said 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.”
“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,” underlined 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, added Alexandre.”
