STMicroelectronics and Metalenz Sign a New License Agreement to Accelerate Metasurface Optics Adoption
Rhea-AI Summary
STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) and Metalenz have signed a new license agreement to expand the production of metasurface optics. This builds on their successful collaboration since 2022, during which ST has shipped over 140 million metasurface optics and FlightSense™ modules using Metalenz IP.
The agreement leverages ST's unique 300mm semiconductor and optics production platform to address applications across consumer, automotive, and industrial markets. Key applications include smartphone biometrics, LIDAR, camera assist, robotics, gesture recognition, and object detection.
The metasurface optics market is projected to reach $2 billion by 2029, driven by emerging display and imaging applications. The technology has already improved ST's FlightSense modules by enhancing optical performance and temperature stability while reducing size and complexity.
AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.
Positive
- Successfully shipped over 140 million metasurface optics and FlightSense modules since 2022
- Expanded capabilities in high-growth markets including consumer, automotive, and industrial segments
- Market opportunity projected to reach $2B by 2029
- Unique manufacturing advantage combining 300mm semiconductor and optics production
Negative
- None.
News Market Reaction – STM
On the day this news was published, STM gained 3.66%, reflecting a moderate positive market reaction.
Data tracked by StockTitan Argus on the day of publication.
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STMicroelectronics and Metalenz Sign a New License Agreement to Accelerate Metasurface Optics Adoption
- New license agreement enabling the proliferation of metasurface optics across high-volume consumer, automotive and industrial markets: from smartphone applications like biometrics, LIDAR and camera assist, to robotics, gesture recognition, or object detection.
- The agreement broadens ST’s capability to use Metalenz IP to produce advanced metasurface optics while leveraging ST’s unique technology and manufacturing platform combining 300mm semiconductor and optics production, test and qualification.
Geneva, Switzerland, and Boston, MA, USA – July 10, 2025 — STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications and Metalenz, the pioneer of metasurface optics, announced a new license agreement. The agreement broadens ST’s capability to use Metalenz IP to produce advanced metasurface optics while leveraging ST’s unique technology and manufacturing platform combining 300mm semiconductor and optics production, test and qualification.
"STMicroelectronics is the unique supplier on the market offering a groundbreaking combination of optics and semiconductor technology. Since 2022, we have shipped well over 140 million metasurface optics and FlightSense™ modules using Metalenz IP. The new license agreement with Metalenz bolsters our technology leadership in consumer, industrial and automotive segments, and will enable new opportunities from smartphone applications like biometrics, LIDAR and camera assist, to robotics, gesture recognition, or object detection,” underlined Alexandre Balmefrezol, Executive Vice President and General Manager of STMicroelectronics’s Imaging Sub-Group. “Our unique model, processing optical technology in our 300mm semiconductor fab, ensures high precision, cost-effectiveness, and scalability to meet the requests of our customers for high-volume, complex applications."
“Our agreement with STMicroelectronics has the potential to further fast-track the adoption of metasurfaces from their origins at Harvard to adoption by market leading consumer electronics companies,” said Rob Devlin, co-founder and CEO of Metalenz. “By enabling the shift of optics production into semiconductor manufacturing, this agreement has the possibility to further redefine the sensing ecosystem. As use cases for 3D sensing continue to expand, ST’s technology leadership in the market together with our IP leadership solidifies ST and Metalenz as the dominant forces in the emergent metasurface market we created.”
The new license agreement aims to address the growing market opportunity for metasurface optics projected to experience significant growth to reach
Note to editors
In 2022, metasurface technology from Metalenz, which spun out of Harvard and holds the exclusive license rights to the foundational Harvard metasurface patent portfolio, debuted with ST’s market leading direct Time-of-Flight (dToF) FlightSense modules.
Replacing the traditional lens stacks and shifting to metasurface optics instead has improved the optical performance and temperature stability of the FlightSense modules while reducing their size and complexity.
The use of 300mm wafers ensures high precision and performance in optical applications, as well as the inherent scalability and robustness advantage of semiconductor manufacturing process.
About STMicroelectronics
At ST, we are 50,000 creators and makers of semiconductor technologies mastering the semiconductor supply chain with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. An integrated device manufacturer, we work with more than 200,000 customers and thousands of partners to design and build products, solutions, and ecosystems that address their challenges and opportunities, and the need to support a more sustainable world. Our technologies enable smarter mobility, more efficient power and energy management, and the wide-scale deployment of cloud-connected autonomous things. We are on track to be carbon neutral in all direct and indirect emissions (scopes 1 and 2), product transportation, business travel, and employee commuting emissions (our scope 3 focus), and to achieve our
Further information can be found at www.st.com.
About Metalenz
Metalenz is at the forefront of driving innovation in optics with metasurface technology, providing solutions that redefine the possibilities of mobile imaging and sensing. Metalenz is the first company to bring metasurfaces to mass markets, with millions of its meta-optics already integrated in consumer devices, combining the functionality of three or four complex lenses and components into a single flat device, mass produced in existing semiconductor foundries. The company’s first full system solution, Polar ID, is a groundbreaking, ultra-secure, small, and affordable face unlock solution for mobile that harnesses the unique polarized light sorting capabilities of metasurfaces, enabling mobile devices to see beyond the limits of current visual systems. metalenz.com
CONTACTS
STMicroelectronics
INVESTOR RELATIONS
Jérôme Ramel
EVP Corporate Development & Integrated External Communication
Tel: +41.22.929.59.20
jerome.ramel@st.com
MEDIA RELATIONS
Alexis Breton
Corporate External Communications
Tel: +33.6.59.16.79.08
alexis.breton@st.com
Metalenz
Carly Glovinski
Sr. Marketing Manager
media@metalenz.com
Attachments
- 300mm metasurface optics manufactured by ST, integrating Metalenz IP
- July 10 2025 -- ST and Metalenz new agreement_PRESS RELEASE
