The first | of 36Kr accelerated the full mass production of AR optical waveguides, and "Lingxi Micro light" won 100 million yuan of B round financing

36Kr learned that on March 9, Beijing Lingxi Micro light Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lingxi Micro light"), the developer of AR underlying optical engine technology and the consumer-grade AR core display and optical solution service provider, announced the completion of a 100 million yuan B round of financing, including SDIC Meiya Fund, Fuzhikang (formerly Foxconn International Holdings Co., Ltd., 2038.HK), Medica (688079), Beijing Tianhe Venture Capital and Shenzhen Wudao Capital.

Lingxi Micron light said: After the completion of this round of financing, it will continue to overcome difficulties in the research and development of AR optical waveguides, focus on solving the problem of automated production of array waveguides, and pave the way for its comprehensive move towards the consumer market; continue to promote the research and development of body holographic optical waveguide technology and mass production; accelerate the opening up of the AR industry chain and promote the popularization of AR.

Lingxi Micron light announced the completion of a 100 million yuan B round of financing

Reached a strategic cooperation with Meiya Bakke and continued to dig deeper into the B-end segment

Since its inception, Lingxi Micro Light has focused on the research and development, mass production and complete solution supply of AR optical waveguide technology, during which it launched the array optical waveguide module AW60 series, AW70 series, AW80 series (all of which have been mass-produced). In addition, the Lingxi micro-light industry pioneered the two-dimensional pupil expansion technology AR optical module based on the array scheme, and has achieved a breakthrough in light transmittance and light energy utilization, and the general light transmittance can reach more than 82%, and the light loss is smaller and the picture is clearer.

In the B-end field, Lingxi Shimmer has continued to cultivate for many years. The segments covered include, but are not limited to:

In terms of military industry, the army helmet equipped with AR optical display lenses has been supported for army combat, which can display map locations, gun aim data, and transmit combat instructions in real time, and its transparency can maintain environmental and scene awareness, while presenting key data points, more accurate understanding of enemy and friend information, night vision capabilities can better cope with different combat environments;

At the security level, the intelligent recognition function is realized through AR glasses, and various public security data (face, license plate, etc.) are retrieved and collected anytime and anywhere, and the processing results are displayed on the glasses in real time. Adapt to the characteristics of mobile, sudden and urgent in security work;

In terms of medical treatment, WE provide AR glasses for the field of disability assistance, and provide real-time sound conversion text display for hearing-impaired users, so that hearing-impaired users can see the "sound" and achieve "communication as usual".

In order to better adapt to AR TO B scenarios in multiple segments and lay a solid foundation for building a complete AR solution service system, Lingxi Micron Light has reached a strategic cooperation with Meiya Bakke to carry out a series of cooperation in the field of emergency security and social service governance.

To pave the way for consumer-grade AR, it has invested nearly 100 million yuan with Medica to establish a joint venture

2022 will be the first year for AR optical waveguide technology to enter a broader market. From the public information, it can be seen that the first-line manufacturers represented by Apple, Meta, and Qualcomm have accelerated their layout, and AR glasses will be the next generation of computing platforms after mobile phones and PCs.

Last year, Lingxi Micro light took the lead in releasing the thin and light AR glasses reference model Aladdin Zero, promoting AR optical waveguide technology to the consumer market. Traditionally, it is believed that because the array optical waveguide uses optical cold working technology in the process, that is, multi-piece optical glass cutting, milling, coating, gluing, polishing and other processes, it has natural disadvantages and high costs in terms of mass production and yield.

However, in essence, through the self-developed precision real-time monitoring and compensation system, Lingxi Micro light finds the balance point of precision, adds special materials in the manufacturing process, changes the processing properties, and solves the high-precision machining problem of multiple coupling of optical waveguides. Through years of process accumulation and polishing, Lingxi Shiguang has successfully achieved mass production of optical waveguides, and the yield rate can reach more than 85%, which is of landmark significance.

In order to further improve the large-scale production efficiency and yield of array waveguide lenses, Lingxi Micro light announced the establishment of Hangzhou Lingxi Meidikai Display Technology Co., Ltd. with a joint venture of nearly 100 million yuan with Medica, and jointly cooperated in the optical cold processing of array waveguides.

At the same time, the amount of financing will be applied to the further improvement of the yield of array optical waveguides and the research of automation technology. With the end of this round of financing, Lingxi Micron light will cooperate with the capital to deeply participate in the formulation of consumer-grade AR waveguide display standards and accelerate the completion of the opening up of the downstream industrial chain of AR glasses.

Zheng Yu, founder and CEO of Lingxi Micron, said: "Based on the strong resources of consumer electronics manufacturers, Lingxi Micronulg will take the lead in coupling AR consumer products under the definition of international manufacturers, and jointly promote the popularization process of AR glasses." ”

Next: Pusher holographic optical waveguide module full mass production

With the development of the AR industry and the popularity of the meta-universe concept, the consumer-grade AR terminal vision oriented by the body holographic waveguide grating technology has been frequently mentioned by large manufacturers. As a manufacturer focusing on the research and development and mass production of AR optical waveguides, in addition to array optical waveguide technology, Lingxi Micro light has also been deeply cultivated in body holographic waveguide grating and surface relief grating technology for many years.

Lingxi Micro Light has realized the independent research and development and production of body holographic materials, mastered the polymer dispersed liquid crystal configuration formula, and completed the synthesis of the first batch of materials; realized the red and blue monolithic monolithic in the preparation of the body holographic grating waveguide, and the trial production of the red and green monolithic waveguide, and completed the trial production of the single-piece two-color waveguide shooting and the single-piece tricolor waveguide sample; the optical machine completed the overall design of the single-green holographic waveguide, carried out the trial production of the single-green holographic waveguide module, and completed the optical design of the full-color small-aperture optical machine (projector part).

With the completion of the Tens of millions of yuan Pre B round of financing led by BOC Yuecai in the middle of last year, jin yumao material capital, yuanfang assets and Xienuo Financial, its research and development accumulation in body holographic waveguide grating technology has also been completed.

At present, Lingxi Shimmer has completed the construction of the workshop clean room of the Wuxi production line of thousands of flats, and the first batch of holographic optical waveguide lenses will achieve full mass production in 2023. In the next step, Lingxi Micronucation will increase R&D investment and explore the technical feasibility of large-scale production from a variety of technical routes.

Zheng Yu said: "The positioning of Lingxi Shimmer hopes to promote partners to create AR glasses close to the form of ordinary glasses by providing mature optical modules. Our ultimate positioning is TO C, and we are also working hard for this ultimate goal, and we hope to cooperate with more domestic manufacturers to jointly create this new industry. ”

Founded in 2014, Lingxi Micronules provides core display solutions for consumer-grade AR. Focusing on the optical display of AR underlying technology, focusing on the optical engine of core devices, it is one of the few core technologies of optical waveguides in the world. Lingxi Micro Light has provided core technologies for a number of well-known brand manufacturers, based on its optical display solutions, AR equipment manufacturers can develop AR glasses that are closer to the form of ordinary glasses.

In December 2017, Lingxi Micron light received tens of millions of yuan of Series A financing from Sequoia Capital China Fund, and in May 2019, Lingxi Micro Light received tens of millions of yuan of A+ round financing led by Sunyu V Fund, and set up a factory in Wuxi to realize the transformation of domestic optical waveguides from samples to mass-produced consumer goods.

Yang Tianwei, vice president of investment of SDIC Meiya Fund, said: "Based on the industrial foundation of SDIC Meiya Fund, we are very optimistic about the application of AR intelligent equipment in administrative law enforcement, emergency rescue and other scenarios; Lingxi Micronome, as the head enterprise of AR optical waveguide, has broken through a number of production process problems in the field of optical waveguide, and more than 120 patents currently held by Lingxi Micronclus cover materials, processes, production equipment and software, etc. We are also looking forward to cooperation with Lingxi Micronew in the industry." ”

300188 is a leading enterprise in the field of data security, data governance and intelligent equipment, and belongs to the national team in the field of cyberspace security and social governance.

Ge Wenzhi, Chairman of Medike, said: "The development of AR optical waveguide technology has gone through three key stages: prototype research and development, process mass production and small batch production. As a leading developer of display modules in the AR supply chain, Lingxi Micron light has considerable strength to push this technology to the consumer market stage. In the next step, Medica expects to combine its own optical technology and industrial chain advantages, work with Lingxi Shimmer to overcome difficulties, and take a key step to break the bottleneck of consumer-grade AR waveguides. ”

Medikea is highly bound to Apple's supply chain, and its products, processing services, and solutions are widely used in smart phones, digital cameras, security cameras, projectors, smart cars, AR/MR equipment and other terminal products.

Lv Yipeng, managing partner of Beijing Tianhe Venture Capital, said: "AR core module enterprises have experienced tortuous development in the past 10 years, and now have the conditions to meet the outbreak of consumer end, Lingxi Micronow, as the best AR optical module research and development enterprise in China, is a high-quality asset tracked by Tianhe Venture Capital for a long time. The investment in Lingxi Shimmer also further confirms the persistence and original intention of Tianhe Venture Capital to 'invest in and accompany excellent high-tech enterprises for a long time'. ”