Schott, a global leader in Advanced Optics and Specialty Glass, works with WaveGuide partner Lumus and is arguably the manufacturer of WaveGuide Optics, Meta’s Ray-Ban display glasses. Although Ray-Ban display glasses offer only a static 20° field of view, the company says its vibration tube technology can support immersive, wide field of view glasses in the future.
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Schott has secured a major victory as the first waveguide manufacturer to begin production of waveguides on a consumer scale. Meta has not confirmed who will create waveguides with Ray-Ban display glasses, but Schott announced one day before the launch of Ray-Ban displays it is “the first company that can handle geometrically reflected waveguide manufacturing with (mass) production.”
In anticipation of AR glasses, Shott has spent years investing in technology, manufacturing and partnerships to establish himself as a leading provider of smart and AR glasses optics.
The company signed a strategic partnership with Lumus, a company that actually designs geometrically reflected waveguides. Last year, the company announced the completion of a new factory, which stated that it would significantly enhance Shot’s ability to supply high-quality optical components to the international high-tech industry, including AR (AR).
These investments seem to be rewarding now. As a provider of waveguides for Ray-Ban display glass, there are a handful of companies with a variety of waveguide technologies and manufacturing processes, but Schott can argue that “mass market preparation for scalability is proven.” As far as I know, something others have not yet done on this scale.
“This breakthrough in the industrial production of this geometrically reflected waveguide will mean it extends to adding important missing puzzle pieces to the landscape of AR technology,” said Dr. Ruediger Sprengard, Senior Vice President of Shot. “For years, the promise of lightweight, powerful smart glasses available at large scale has been out of reach. Today, we are changing that. By offering geometric reflective waveguides on a large scale, we are helping our partners cross thresholds and provide an immersive experience for true wearable products.”
As for the future, the company claims that geometric reflective waveguides can scale beyond the 20° small field of view of Ray-Ban display glasses into immersive, wide field of view devices.
“Compared to AR’s competing optical technology, geometric reflective waveguides stand out in their light and energy efficiency, allowing device designers to create fashionable glasses for all-day use. These attributes make geometric reflective vision guides the best option for small FOVs and the only available option for a wide range of FOVs.
In fact, Schott’s partner Lumus has long demonstrated a wider field of view wave guide, such as the 50° ‘Lumus Maximus’, which dates back to 2022.
My take
As a provider of waveguides for Ray-Ban displays, Schott & Lumus has achieved a major victory over their competitors. From the outside it appears that Lumus’ geometric reflective waveguides have prevailed, mainly due to optical efficiency. Most other waveguide technologies rely on optics (rather than reflective) and have certain advantages, but lack the efficiency of light.
Optical efficiency is important because microdisplays for eyeglass-sized devices must be small and power efficient. The bigger and brighter the display becomes, the more bulkier, hotter and more power hungry. Therefore, using a waveguide with high light efficiency is important considering the small space available, as the display is small, cool and less power hunger.
Spreading the same light over a wide area reduces the apparent brightness, and demand for light and electricity also increases in the field of view.
Schott said that its vibration tube technology is ready to expand from a wider perspective, but it probably doesn’t hold back the true AR glasses (like the Orion prototype that Meta unveiled in 2024).
it’s not just A wide range of view optics that devices like Orion need to ship. There are still issues with battery and processing power. Orion was able to work that way as a lot of the calculations and batteries were offloaded into the wireless pack. If Meta wants to fire full AR glasses like Orion without a pack (as they did with Ray-Ban Display), the company needs a smaller, more efficient chip to allow that.
Furthermore, display technology must also be advanced to actually utilize optics that can project a wide range of fields of view.
The Ray-Ban display glasses use a rather low resolution 0.36mp (600 x 600) display. The pixels are spread to just 20°, making them look sharp. As the fields in the view increase, both brightness and resolution must increase to maintain the same image quality. There is not much room for increasing your body size It means packaging of the display small While making pixels to the same small area, bright. As you can imagine, improving these inversely related properties simultaneously is a challenge.
