A 12-inch wafer made using standard semiconductor processes contains thousands of Metalenz metasurface optics. | Metalenz
Metalenses are a relatively fringe optical technology — at least, they were. Until now, it has been largely pursued by startups and scientists but that is changing as Canon has jumped into the fray and not only makes them but also produces the equipment necessary to manufacture them. Metalenses are flat surfaces that are designed to replace full-size optics with a wholly different method. Basically, metalenses reduce the typically large and complicated optical structure of a standard camera lens and compress it into a much smaller system that bends light using nanoparticles and metasurfaces instead of curved optics. The goal of a metalens would be to, eventually, wholly eliminate the smartphone camera bump.
This technology is very new — it was only two years ago that scientists from MIT managed to create a prototype metalens that was able toThe biggest players in the field are a company called Metalenz and Samsung, although the latter has only mentioned it wasfor use in smartphones — a common goal given that camera systems on smartphones are a notable area that is becoming increasingly difficult to downsize using traditional optics.
Canon is not only producing metalenses, but it is producing them with hardware it also makes. This level of investment in a technology and the fact it is being showcased at Canon Expo all but confirms the company plans to move forward in this space with considerable investment.
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