Latest news with #MetaOpticsTechnologies
Business Times
19-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
A startup, a scale-up and a hospital bag top accolades at maiden Design AI and Tech Awards
[SINGAPORE] Home-grown semiconductor optics startup MetaOptics Technologies, local autonomous cleaning robot firm LionsBot and Sengkang General Hospital clinched top honours at the inaugural Design AI and Tech Awards (Daita) on Monday (May 19). Jointly organised by The Business Times (BT) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), the competition aims to spur innovators from startups and companies to harness design and technology to develop groundbreaking solutions that tackle real-life business challenges. Daita was launched in October 2024 with multi-asset investment firm Granite Asia as a supporting partner. MetaOptics swept the judges with its advanced colour metalens imaging system that features a single-glass layer alternative to traditional multi-layer curved plastic lenses. Its deputy chief executive officer Aloysius Chua said in his presentation: 'The challenge today with traditional three-dimensional optics is the bulkiness, complexity and high costs.' He explained that metalenses, also known as flat optics or 2D lenses, are single layers of glass made up of millions of circular pillars of varying diameters – each as thin as one-thousandth of a human hair – at the same height.
Business Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
MetaOptics' single-layered glass lens improves performance and sustainability
[SINGAPORE] Local semiconductor optics startup MetaOptics Technologies is harnessing nanophotonics and artificial intelligence (AI) to overhaul traditional lens systems used in consumer electronics, augmented and virtual reality and scientific imaging. Its flagship innovation, the Advanced Color Metalens Imaging System, replaces multi-layer plastic lenses with a single-layer glass metalens. Using deep ultraviolet (DUV) immersion lithography on 12-inch wafers – a process borrowed from semiconductor manufacturing – the system dramatically reduces the thickness and weight of camera modules, while offering enhanced durability and colour accuracy. The cameras in today's smartphones and point-and-shoot devices typically rely on stacked layers of plastic or glass lenses to focus light. Innovative lenses But this bulky architecture may soon be obsolete. Metalenses are flat optical components that can perform the same function using just a single layer of intricately patterned nanostructures. SEE ALSO EtonHouse teachers now teach more and do less admin with AI GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up VIEW ALL MetaOptics uses semiconductor fabrication techniques to etch millions of microscopic pillars – each about 1/800th the width of a human hair – onto glass wafers. A 1.5 mm lens can contain more than six million of these nano-pillars, precisely engineered to manipulate light and focus images with incredible accuracy. MetaOptics identified problems with bulky optics, environmental concerns and inconsistent image quality in compact devices, based on feedback from the industry. By working with engineers, designers and software developers, they created a single-layer RGB glass lens that can independently tune red, green and blue light without filters – producing sharper, more vibrant images. To further enhance imaging, MetaOptics developed AI-based software that performs real-time fusion of RGB channels, automatically fine-tuning contrast, sharpness and noise. The company's proprietary algorithms restore image quality to near-original, high-resolution levels, even under varying lighting conditions – a challenge that has long plagued mobile and embedded imaging systems.
