'Meta-Lidar' Developer Lumotive Secures Funding Round: Week in Brief: 08/26/22

Optica launched a campaign to highlight the achievements of the global photonics community. The “Optica Community” campaign presents a series of life stories celebrating the society’s global diversity and the shared values of its members. The profiles demonstrate the impact of the photonics community on the individuals whose life stories are being represented, as well as the impact of those individuals on the community at large. Optica’s nearly half-million members hail from 183 countries. The series of stories can be read at www.optica.org/en-us/about/optica_community.

SEATTLE — Lumotive, developer of metasurface-based beam steering chips, secured a round of strategic funding led by Samsung Ventures. The investment included contributions from new strategic investors, including Himax technologies, as well as Bill Gates, Quan Funds, and MetaVC Partners. Lumotive plans to use the funding to accelerate the development and customer delivery of optical semiconductor devices that enable the next generation of lidar sensors. More than two dozen companies are engaged with Lumotive to use the company’s light control metasurface (LCM) chips to develop next-generation systems for autonomy, automation, and augmented reality markets.

Lumotive’s LCM beam steering chips. Courtesy of Lumotive.

CENTENNIAL, Ohio — NUBURU was awarded an AFWERX Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract by the U.S. Air Force to develop a blue laser-based 3D printing solution with area printing technology. The goal of the one-year project is to demonstrate improved speed and accuracy of a metal 3D printer based on NUBURU’s blue laser technology. This new class of 3D printers will aim to offer micron-level resolution, increased part size and metal density, up to 100x build speed, with minimal to zero post-processing and part shrinkage. The solution could allow the military to build replacement parts for older aircraft that have been declared obsolete by the original suppliers and diminish the time required to build and replace critical components, said NUBURU CEO and co-founder Mark Zediker.

VARENNES, Quebec — The Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS), based at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) outside Montreal, received nearly 3.4 million CAD ($2.63 million) from the government of Canada through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Major Science Initiatives Fund. The fund invested more than $628 million to support ongoing operation and maintenance needs of 19 research facilities at 14 institutions across Canada.

A peek inside the vacuum chamber of the 750-TW laser at the Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) at the INRS. Courtesy of Josée LeCompte/INRS.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded researchers at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the University of Delaware (UD) an Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Track 2 grant for $4 million to advance quantum photonic technology research and to establish a quantum science and engineering program at UNM. The new graduate program will be modeled after UD’s quantum science and engineering program.

WARRINGTON, England — Quantum Science Ltd. (QS), a developer of nanomaterials, secured funding in the form of a grant from Innovate UK’s Analysis for Innovators (A4I) competition. The grant will provide a boost to QS’ work developing and commercializing its INFIQ quantum dot technology. Funds will be used to develop techniques for the measurement of nanoscale surfaces in collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory.