NOP' AR Waveguides Family
NOP has been developing AR diffractive waveguide products since 2016 and has accumulated profound experience in the design, process, and mass production of diffractive waveguides. At the Optical Expo in 2019, NOP, in collaboration with Schott of Germany, officially launched its first mass - produced AR diffractive waveguide, the Xiaoyao Generation I, at the exhibition venue, attracting significant market attention.
In the past five years, NOP's AR waveguide product family has been continuously expanded and enriched. By integrating the project experience of numerous international and domestic customers over several years, the company has launched four basic mass - produced product series, namely "Qiushui", "Xiaoyao", "Mengdie", and "Fuyao", into the market. These four product series focus on different application scenarios, meet the needs of different customers, and are deeply cross - customized according to specific requirements under the four product series. Up to now, there are already more than ten products globally equipped with NOP waveguides. To explore innovative applications of AR diffractive waveguides in the consumer market, NOP has not only maintained continuous and in - depth cooperation with well - known international and domestic Internet companies and terminal companies but also collaborated closely with excellent Chinese XR innovation enterprises such as Meizu, Rokid, Yingmu, Rayneo, and OPPO for joint research and development. A series of "Made in China" products with industry influence have been continuously launched:
Launch of the New High - Performance Monolithic Full - Color Etched Waveguide Series - Yingning
At the beginning of the New Year 2024, NOP officially launched the high - performance monolithic full - color etched waveguide series - Yingning into the market as promised.
Yingning Series：
The Yingning series is built on NOP's self - contained closed - loop lithography - etching IDM platform. It incorporates NOP's latest design and process, and is directly monolithically etched from a new inorganic material optical wafer. While being thin and light, it achieves a high efficiency of 900 nits/lm (30 - degree field of view). When paired with a common light engine of just over 2 lm, it can achieve an image brightness of over 2000 nits, meeting the usage requirements for all indoor and outdoor scenarios throughout the day and bringing long - lasting battery life to the entire device. On this basis, relying on its own closed - loop of design, process, and production, NOP will continue to iterate at a high speed to improve performance. It is expected to reach an ultra - high efficiency of 1500 nits/lm in Q3 2024. In addition to the core optical performance that the industry pays attention to, it has also achieved breakthroughs in high - order AR features, and its various parameters are highly competitive. Taking the anti - environmental interference feature as an example, regarding the rainbow stripe problem that plagues traditional diffractive waveguides, it has achieved "zero" rainbow within a 120 - degree field of view and a hundred - fold suppression of rainbow in the peripheral field of view. At the same time, in terms of process stability, Yingning has demonstrated its stable and reliable performance in continuous small - batch verification, has initially completed mass - production verification, and will start selling to the outside world in Q2 2024.
With the launch of Yingning, NOP has completed the five product series of "Qiushui", "Xiaoyao", "Mengdie", "Fuyao", and "Yingning". Each of the five series has its own focus, and they can meet the diverse needs of customers through multiple processes and materials. In terms of appearance, NOP can provide various IDs such as side - projection and top - projection, and can also customize the appearance according to customers' requirements; in terms of materials, NOP provides two basic materials, glass and resin, and can also provide various characteristic materials and composite materials according to customers' optical requirements; in terms of thinness, NOP offers multiple options such as monolithic full - color, double - piece full - color, and multi - piece composite high - performance; in terms of process routes, NOP's self - owned IDM multi - technology - route mass - production closed - loop platform can provide different process routes and process combinations such as nano - imprinting, lithography, and etching. Relying on customers' performance requirements, ID requirements, and cost requirements, NOP can provide customized solutions:
Collaborating with Carl Zeiss Tooz and Debuting at SPIE Photonics West in the United States
From January 27th to February 1st, 2024, SPIE Photonics West was held in San Francisco, USA. NOP participated in the exhibition in collaboration with Carl Zeiss Tooz. In addition to showcasing NOP's latest product iterations and technological advancements, the exhibition mainly launched a fused vision - correction AR solution jointly developed by the two parties.
As we all know, refractive problems such as myopia and astigmatism are important issues for the popularization of AR glasses in the consumer market. AR near - eye displays face a series of challenges such as vision correction, long - term eye fatigue, and vergence problems due to the need to simultaneously consider the integration of virtual and real images and the refractive problems of different individuals.
At this Photonics West, NOP and Zeiss jointly launched the Planar Diffractive Waveguide with Push - Pull Vision Correction solution. This solution seamlessly packages a customized Push - Pull structure and a supporting diffractive waveguide through a specific development process to form an integrated, highly customized solution that varies from person to person. It effectively solves challenges such as vision correction, long - term eye fatigue, and vergence problems, taking an important step forward in the popularization of AR glasses in the consumer market. This successful cooperation with Carl Zeiss Tooz also marks an important step for NOP in gradually entering the international consumer market!
