EV Group (EVG), a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today announced that it has teamed up with SCHOTT, one of the world’s leading technology groups in the areas of specialty glass and glass ceramics, to demonstrate the readiness of 300-mm (12 inch) nanoimprint lithography (NIL) for high-volume patterning of high-refractive index (HRI) glass wafers used in the manufacture of waveguides/light guides for next-generation augmented/mixed reality (AR/MR) headsets.
The partnership involves EVG’s proprietary SmartNIL® process and SCHOTT RealView™ high-refractive index glass wafers, and will be carried out within EVG’s NILPhotonics® Competence Center at the company’s headquarters in Austria. SCHOTT will showcase a 300-mm SCHOTT RealView™ glass wafer patterned with EVG’s SmartNIL technology at the China International Optoelectronic Expo (CIOE), to be held September 4-7 at the Shenzhen Convention Center.
“Scaling up to 300-mm manufacturing of high-refractive index glass wafers is critical to achieving the production volumes at the economies of scale that our customers need to meet growing market demand for today’s and tomorrow’s leading AR/MR devices,” stated Dr. Ruediger Sprengard, Head of Augmented Reality at SCHOTT. “Through this joint effort, EVG and SCHOTT are demonstrating the equipment and supply-chain readiness for 300-mm HRI glass manufacturing today.”