Imagia, a developer of next-generation lens technology, announced today the completion of a $4.5 million seed investment. The funding, led by Gates Frontier and joined by MetaVC Partners and other strategic investors, will speed up the development and commercialization of the company’s first generation of flat, silicon-based optical lenses.
Imagia’s metalens technology can compress an entire optical assembly into a planar, wafer-thin device, leading in a significant decrease in optical assembly size and complexity.
Imagia can precisely build nanoscale structures directly onto various substrates using the patent-pending technique, resulting in entirely flat metalenses that steer light waves by design and without the necessity for standard curved lenses. Lenses can be square or circular, and as small as a single pixel on a digital display.
Because of the limits of classical bulk optics, current designers of complex optoelectronic goods such as AR/VR headsets must continually trade off ergonomic shape and optical function.
Imagia, lead by a team of optical physicists and materials science experts and founded by Greg Kress, a Stanford PhD engineer and serial entrepreneur, is poised to redefine the next generation of high-performance optoelectronics devices with their patent-pending metalens technology.
Imagia can program unique lenses that are both flat and square, with near 100% fill factors, using proprietary silicon-based optical materials and cutting-edge lithography methods. Imagia is actively working on solutions for customers in the areas of augmented reality displays and LED lighting.
ImagiaTM designs and manufactures high-performance optical lenses that are both scalable and compatible with industry-standard light sources such as LEDs. Custom solutions for advanced imaging and display systems are possible with this technology. ImagiaTM lenses provide up new avenues for optical design in an ultra-thin, fully flat form factor.