FEATURE PHOTONICS WEST 2024 ROUND-UP
will be really eager to adopt the technology as soon as it reaches the right cost,” he said. However, for most consumer
display applications, Virey explained that Vole believes OLEDs are already doing a good job, while also improving on an annual basis. “We feel that for many
of those applications, microLEDs are going to need to demonstrate strong, differentiating performance at a cost similar to OLEDs. This will require some very strong champions – and by that I mean companies that are really committed in the long term to investing and putting in the required resources to make microLEDs successful.” This has led to Yole making two separate scenario forecasts. “Our conservative scenario is based on microLEDs only succeeding in automotive, AR|VR|MR and specialty; for example, stretchable and transparent
display applications, plus smartwatches; in which we see Apple being a very strong champion, as well as AUO, albeit to a lesser extent,” he told the panel audience at the show. This Yole scenario forecasts
microLEDs going from a calculated market size of $35 million in 2024 to $2.25 billion in 2030, a CAGR of 81%. “However, if all the stars align, we have a much more optimistic scenario in which microLEDs succeed in pretty much every application’s high-end tier: TVs (including luxury and consumer), laptops, AR|VR|MR, automotive, tablets, smartwatches and smartphones.” This scenario forecasts the
microLED market reaching $12.06 billion in 2030, at a CAGR of 130%. It was a view that captivated audiences at the San Francisco show and one that we will continue to monitor in the years ahead as the market accelerates.
Exail
Pushing the boundaries of phase modulation for high-energy laser applications Exail, a leading high-tech manufacturer of photonic components, optical fibres and laser systems, used this year’s Photonics West as the launch point for its latest, cutting- edge Low Vπ LiNbO3 Spectral Broadening Phase Modulator, designed especially for the rigorous demands of extremely high- power laser applications involving coherent beam combination (CBC) and spectral beam combination (SBC). Key optical features include very low insertion loss (<3dB), high optical power handling (up to 300mW at 1,060nm), and extremely stable performance over time, temperature and vibration. In addition, note its low Vπ of only 2V at 50kHz minimises RF and power consumption. It is also available at other wavelengths (O-band, C-band, 2µm windows). The phase modulator is well-suited to facilitating
the exceptionally high power levels of laser directed energy weapons (LDEWs) via CBC, a key target market for Exail. The firm also sees dynamic beam shaping for laser materials processing, high-energy physics and nuclear fusion as being target application areas for the new Low Vπ LiNbO3 Phase Modulator.
www.exail.com
Funding focus for philanthropic giants Global Health Labs and the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative
Eric Virey, Senior Market and Technology Analyst at Yole Development, outlined predictions for the microLED market and revealed his organisation anticipates accelerating growth in the years ahead
10 Electro Optics March 2024
Bios Expo at Photonics West 2024 heard about the philanthropic focus of Bill Gates’ Global Health Labs, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, while picking up some tips on how to secure funding Philanthropic organisations can help industry scale some of its innovation, if the fit is right. Matt Keller, Director, Engineering, for Global Health (GH) Labs – a not-for-profit funded by Gates Ventures (the private office of Bill Gates) focused on reducing health disparities, especially in low- and middle-income countries, told the audience at Bios Expo: “Oftentimes, our engagement with a company can be focused on a base technology that could be of use in a developing country. That’s a common earlier engagement that we have with industry, but we might also work with a company looking to expand its global reach.” The session, billed The Roles of Philanthropic Organisations and Research Institutes in Funding Biophotonics, saw
Photonics100 honoree Anita Mahadevan-Jansen share some of her tips for how to get funding from this route. Mahadevan-Jansen, who
is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University, says her best advice would be to reach out to people running the programmes to truly understand what they are looking to support. “Build those relationships – it can really make a difference,” she said. She also suggested looking beyond the bigger foundations, as smaller amounts of investment can be found in many more places. “The competition is often smaller and the odds of getting funding – especially after the first phase – is greater. The pots of money can be small, though, ranging from $25,000 to a couple of hundred thousand dollars.”
Private funding: faster and fewer regulations With Unesco estimating that public and private funding of science and technology in the G20 averages at about 2.04% of GDP, she said government funding tends to be the go-to source for biomedical research, but isn’t the whole story. She says private funding is often faster to access and often
www.electrooptics.com
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