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 IP to produce metasurface optics on 300 mm semiconductor wafers (shown) using its unique production platform. Courtesy of STMicroelectronics

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.

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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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About Metalenz

About STMicroelectronics

Published: July 2025

Glossary

metalens: A metalens, short for "metasurface lens," is a type of optical lens that uses nanostructured materials to manipulate light at a subwavelength scale. Unlike traditional lenses made of glass or other transparent materials, metalenses do not rely on the curvature of their surface to refract or focus light. Instead, they use carefully engineered patterns of nanostructures, such as nanoscale antennas or dielectric structures, to control the phase and amplitude of light across the lens's surface....
semiconductor: A semiconductor is a type of material that has electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. In other words, semiconductors have properties that are intermediate between metals (good conductors of electricity) and insulators (poor conductors of electricity). The conductivity of a semiconductor can be controlled and modified by factors such as temperature, impurities, or an applied electric field. The most common semiconductors are crystalline solids, and they are...

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