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STMicroelectronics Synchs with Metalenz for Meta-optics Rollout
STMicroelectronics (ST) and metasurface technology developer Metalenz have established a license agreement that broadens ST’s capability to use Metalenz intellectual property to produce advanced metasurface optics while leveraging ST’s platform combining 300-mm semiconductor and optics production, test, and qualification.
According to Alexandre Balmefrezol, executive vice president and general manager of STMicroelectronics’s Imaging Sub-Group, the agreement with Metalenz bolsters ST’s position in consumer, industrial, and automotive segments while creating opportunities in smartphone applications like biometrics, lidar, and camera assists, as well as areas like robotics, gesture recognition, and object recognition.
STMicroelectronics will utilize Metalenz intellectual property to produce metasurface optics on 300-mm semiconductor wafers using its production platform. Courtesy of STMicroelectronics
“By enabling the shift of optics production into semiconductor manufacturing, this agreement has the possibility to further redefine the sensing ecosystem,” said Metalenz CEO Rob Devlin. Metalenz previously partnered with Samsung, on facial recognition technology. Per the February, 2024 agreement, Metalenz said it would use Samsung Electronics’ ISOCELL Vizion 931 technology as the image sensor component for its "Polar ID" imaging system. Metalenz offers the solution for facial biometrics.
According to Balmefrezol, ST has shipped more than 140 million metasurface optics and FlightSense modules using Metalenz intellectual property since 2022, the year that the company debuted the first commercial device featuring Metalenz’s meta-optics technology. The released followed the unveiling of the company’s Polar-Eyes technology earlier that year.
In 2023, Metalenz detailed a manufacturing partnership with semiconductor foundry United Microelectronics Corp. to begin mass-production of its metasurface chips using semiconductor manufacturing. At the time, Devlin said that the company was engaged in talks with OEMs to begin deploying metasurface optics in 3D sensing applications. The company announced a partnership with 3D sensing supplier Dilusense the following month.
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