Google XR Glasses Using Google’s Raxium MicroLEDs While Waveguide Lab Sold to Vuzix
Quick summary· AI-generated
Guttag's deep technical analysis corrects earlier speculation about Google's XR glasses display technology—they use Raxium-designed monolithic full-color MicroLEDs with projection optics rather than Avegant LCOS engines. He argues the extremely low yields (possibly under 1%) of current Raxium MicroLEDs suggest Google's prototype is an R&D demo similar to Meta Orion, not a near-term product. The piece also notes that Vuzix acquired a waveguide lab and includes further confirmation that Meta's Hypernova likely uses Lumus waveguides with LCOS. Guttag examines Raxium's patent filings and founding team to contextualize the company's optical expertise.
Excerpt from KGOnTech
Introduction – Correcting Google AR Glasses Using Raxium MicroLEDs
As I often say, few will volunteer information, but many will correct you. This is the case with my supposition about Google’s XR glasses prototype. In “Meta Hypernova and Google AR/AI Glasses – Lumus & Avegant Inside, Both Using LCOS MicroDisplays,” I mistakenly concluded that Google’s new AR glasses were using Avegant’s LCOS engines, based on a comparison between the Avegant and Google AR glasses prototypes and the information that both were using Applied Materials waveguides. It turns out that while Google “evaluated” Avegant’s reference design, they designed in a Raxium monolithic full-color MicroLED device and projection optics.
The use of a monolithic full-color MicroLED indicates to me that this is just another R&D demo like Meta’s Orion. From what I’ve heard, combined with my knowledge of the state of MicroLEDs, the Raxium MicroLED’s yields are very low, possibly less than 1%, making it infeasible to turn the Raxium-based XR glasses into a product. As this article will discuss, it does not appear that Raxium was very far along in its MicroLED development when Google acquired it.
Since I was surprised to find out that Raxium’s LEDs are inside Google XR glasses, I decided to look more closely into Raxium. Raxium was a bit of an Enigma to me. It seemed strange that Raxium, later known as a MicroLED company, had Gordon Wetzstein, a professor at Stanford and best known for his work in light field and similar near-eye displays (see here, for example), as a co-founder and Chief Scientist for several years. Also, shortly before Google acquired Raxium, Michael Klug, who was VP of Advanced Photonics at Magic Leap and previously founded the light field company Zebra Imaging, joined Raxium. I was left wondering why a MicroLED startup had prominent individuals with experience in light fields and optics. So, I looked at Raxium’s patent filings to get some answers.
Although I was mistaken about Google’s XR glasses using Avegant’s LCOS engine, I received further confirmation that Meta is likely utilizing Lumus’s waveguide and LCOS engine in their Hypernova glasses.
MicroLED Held Up In Google’s XR Glasses TED Talk Video
Shahram Izadi, VP of Android XR, in his TED talk, held up a device he described as a “Full color display” without saying what technology it was using. I went back and forth with some people before writing the article as to whether it was a MicroLED or LCOS. The accompanying…
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