Company · About Us

New perception for people and machines.

Metalenz is a fabless semiconductor optics company on a mission to make new information in light accessible to billions of devices. Built on foundational research from the Capasso Lab at Harvard, we are bringing new perception to the next generation of intelligent devices.

Diagram: a metasurface on the sensor feeds AI for new perception, seamless trust and efficient algorithms across robots, devices, cars and homes

300M+

In market today in top consumer brands, multiple foundry partners

Harvard University

Spun out of foundational research in the Capasso Lab, Harvard SEAS

Key Enabler

Deep expertise and IP on foundational tech through full systems solutions

Foundational technology

Multifunctional optics in a single semiconductor layer.

A metasurface is a flat layer of nanostructures, each smaller than a wavelength of light, that bends and sorts light the way a stack of curved lenses does. One Metalenz meta-optic can combine up to five optical functions, removing complexity, shrinking footprint and delivering high performance.

$Gloved hands holding a Metalenz metasurface wafer in a lab, glowing with rainbow diffraction$ Electron-microscope view of metasurface nanopillars

Electron-microscope view of metasurface nanopillars

Simplify the system

Multiple optical functions on one surface replace multi-element lens stacks.

Consolidate the supply chain

Optics are made in the same foundries, on the same tools, as the electronics they serve.

Proliferate advanced sensing

Smaller, simpler, cost-efficient modules bring advanced sensing to billions of devices.

Wafer of Metalenz metasurface optics produced with STMicroelectronics

Enabling the Metasurface Market

Metalenz emerged from stealth in 2021 as the first company to commercialize metalenses. In 2022, through our partnership with STMicroelectronics, metalenses shipped in consumer devices for the first time. Metasurface components made using Metalenz IP replace existing lens stacks across STMicroelectronics’ FlightSense line for depth mapping. Our collaboration with ST goes beyond replacing lenses: it’s driving an industry shift toward building advanced optics in semiconductor fabs.

More than 300 million Metalenz metasurfaces are in use today across consumer, automotive and industrial markets, in applications from smartphone biometrics, LiDAR and camera assist to robotics, gesture recognition and object detection.

ST and Metalenz sign a new license agreement

Our evolution

From simplifying optics to full-stack solutions.

Gen 1 · Simplify the optical stack

300M+

Metasurface components deployed

Diagram: a conventional DOE and three-lens stack over a VCSEL replaced by a single meta-optic

Shipping meta-optics in consumer devices today through licensing and pure-play manufacturing.

Now · System-level design & sensor integration

Full-stack solutions

Designed around the unique capabilities of metasurfaces.

The Polar ID camera module, with an electron microscope close-up of the metasurface on top of its sensor

Beginning with trust.
Expanding to insight.

Ecosystem

Platform

First application:
Secure biometrics

The Optical Intelligence Layer

All the information in light. Built for scale.

Light carries far more than brightness and color. Polarization reveals shape, surface and material. Phase and the light field encode depth. Conventional cameras record only a fraction of it. Our optical intelligence platforms sort rather than filter light, with a single layer built on the sensor. Our compute stack decodes it to give machines data no conventional camera provides. Better models do more with existing data. New perception at scale creates the data they’ve never had.

Diagram: conventional cameras capture intensity and color; the Optical Intelligence Layer adds polarization, depth and phase

01 · Polarization

Liveness, shape and surface

PolarEyes sorts near-infrared light by polarization on a standard sensor, revealing liveness and material properties for secure authentication, studio-quality relighting and more.

Explore PolarEyes →

02 · Color, depth and phase

The visible light field

PxE’s holographic encoder replaces the color filter array, delivering simultaneous color and depth with 2.5x the SNR of Bayer-based cameras.

Explore the PxE platform →

03 · Built for scale

Made in the foundry

A single mask layer on existing semiconductor equipment, integrated at wafer level alongside the sensor with no module redesign.

Company highlights

A decade of firsts.

Polar ID Under Display face authentication

2026

Metalenz acquires PxE Holographic Imaging, extending optical intelligence to visible-spectrum color and depth
Polar ID Under Display launches with a live demo at Display Week
Gen 1 metasurfaces in market top 300 million units
Polar 3D launches at Mobile World Congress to reimagine selfie relighting

STMicroelectronics and Metalenz metasurface optics on a 300mm wafer

2025

Polar ID under evaluation with top OEMs
STMicroelectronics and Metalenz sign a new license agreement to accelerate metasurface optics adoption
Gen 1 meta-optics pass 140 million units in market
Product and patent portfolio expands to system-level applications for secure biometrics and simpler 3D depth sensing, including single-element dot pattern projectors

Polar ID by Metalenz billboard: unlock the unseen

2024

Polar ID demonstrated live at MWC Barcelona
Samsung ISOCELL Vizion image sensor confirmed as the light engine for Polar ID

2023

Metasurface optics launch on the open market in partnership with UMC
Polar ID announced running on Qualcomm Snapdragon, enabling simple, secure face unlock for smartphones

2022

World’s first metalens product in mass production with STMicroelectronics
Portfolio expands to polarization optics with the launch of PolarEyes sensing and Gemini illuminators
Parts pass module-level reliability for a top OEM

2021

STMicroelectronics partnership announced
Orion dot pattern projectors announced
High-volume, production-ready metalens technology designed into a time-of-flight reference platform

2020