Chipmaker STMicroelectronics and ultra-miniature projection display house MicroVision, Inc. have agreed to work collaboratively to develop, sell and market laser beam scanning (LBS) technology.
While LBS technology currently addresses markets such as automotive and industrial electronics with products such as pico projectors and heads-up display (HUD) units, the potential for LBS expands to other emerging markets, such as virtual and augmented reality (VR, AR), 3-D sensing and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
Under the agreement, the companies will cooperate closely on market development efforts, including joint sales and marketing activities for LBS solutions. The collaboration will also explore future technology development, such as a joint LBS product roadmap. The combination of companies would leverage process design and manufacturing from STMicroelectronics with the LBS systems from MicroVision.
The two companies have already been working in a production relationship prior to this agreement, with STMicroelectronics manufacturing MicroVision’s current generation of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) die and one of MicroVision’s ASICs.
