Every day, the world awaits a new technological breakthrough. New inventions have impacted our lives in the most significant ways. Today, companies strive to step outside the box and create machinery that is advanced, reliable, and futuristic. The photonics and optics industry, especially, has seen a major shift. The more intricate and evolved the technology, the smaller and more compact the creation gets.
There has been a rising demand for meta-optics. Recognizing this trend, Metalenx began its journey in 2016. Looking at the photonics and optics market, they wished to revolutionize it. Co-founder and CEO of Metalenz, Robert Devlin, saw the need to simplify optimal module complexity and optimize the performance and capacity of electronics that use optics and optical sensing. With this idea, Devlin and his team began diving into the world of meta-optics and found the solution to fulfill this need.
They wanted to move ahead from refractive lenses and create something that could operate on a single semiconductor, something easy to use and uncompromised in quality. Metalenses are wafer-level optics that require very low stray light and can produce superior-quality images seamlessly. They call the metalenses “planar optics on a ship.” Instead of a multi-element refractive lens, this one device can outperform and yield better results in a shorter time while reducing footprint.
The idea was to make the mechanics simple, which is exactly what the team of Metalenz delivers. Today, they serve various industries as their technologies are used in AR/VR, cell phone cameras, and the automotive sphere. They studied and examined the needs of each sector to produce powerful products. They are aware of how mobile phone manufacturers try to use 3D sensing in their devices, and meta-optics can help immensely with face identification. With AR/VR, meta-optics can be beneficial to map the room and track the user’s eyes. Finally, today’s automotive industry is trying to enhance driver-assisted safety features, for which optics sensing is crucial. Metalenz has served these markets and has found great success in its partnerships.
With his innovative ideas, Devlin, CEO and Co-Founder, has made a huge headway in the photonics and optics industry. Using standard semiconductor processing, meta-optics can increase control over image sensing. His biggest advantage is that he is the first of his kind. During an interview, he said, “We have a first-mover advantage; we’ve been around since 2016. And our entire focus has been on metasurfaces. We also have the IP from the group where these were invented. And, we focused for the past five years on building up our own internal expertise and design tools that really help to keep us ahead.” This has helped Devlin and his team make a mark in the industry. Thanks to their ideas, the world has now started to realize the potential of meta-optics and metasurfaces.
Devlin has also strived to create a dynamic work culture. They are a start-up that is driven, dedicated, and determined to produce high-quality products for its customers. The team of Metalenz consists of intelligent, creative, and experienced individuals who have truly become assets to the company. They have contributed immensely and have always been encouraged by the senior management team, including Devlin, to think innovatively. It has grown exponentially in a very short span of time, and its customer-centric and technology-driven approach has to be given credit for that. The company has a bright future, and we can only expect new inventions from team Metalenz.