Meta Outlines Strategy for Cutting Costs of Key Next-Gen AR Component

Meta’s brand-new Orion AR glasses prototype definitely doesn’t come cheap— each pair sets you back about $10,000. The priciest element in this high-tech eyewear is the custom silicon carbide waveguide lenses. However, Meta mentions there’s a promising path to slashing these costs in the future.

Silicon carbide has been around the block for a while now, mostly serving as the foundation for high-power chips due to its superior power efficiency and lower heat production. But crafting it isn’t as straightforward as regular silicon; it’s a tough nut to crack because of its complex material properties, cumbersome crystal growth process, and intricate fabrication.

Electric vehicles are paving the way for lowering costs, though we’re still far from seeing them match the affordability of silicon-based options. Another interesting avenue could be quantum computing, but that’s a whole different ball game compared to what Meta aims to achieve with this next-gen material.

Meta’s main interest in silicon carbide lies not in its power efficiency but in its high refractive index. This makes it perfect for creating clear, wide field-of-view (FOV) waveguides, which are ideal for AR glasses, offering a remarkable 70-degree FOV like Orion’s. According to the select few who’ve tried it, the contrast between conventional multi-layered glass waveguides and Orion’s silicon carbide waveguides is akin to night and day.

Pasqual Rivera, an Optical Scientist, shared an interesting perspective in a blog post: Wearing glasses with traditional glass-based waveguides felt like stepping into a distracting disco, full of rainbows, completely diverting attention from the AR content. Switching to glasses with silicon carbide waveguides was like attending a serene symphony—suddenly, the full experience was tangible and focused. It was truly transformative.

Electric vehicle manufacturers worldwide have embraced silicon carbide chips over recent years, contributing to a price dip. According to Giuseppe Calafiore, Reality Lab’s AR Waveguides Tech Lead, there’s now an “overcapacity [thanks to EVs] that didn’t exist when building Orion,” resulting in a lower cost due to decreased demand despite high supply.

It’s worth noting, though, that while these EV-used silicon carbide wafers aren’t designed with optical clarity in mind, Reality Labs’ Barry Silverstein sees a golden opportunity: Suppliers are thrilled about crafting optical-grade silicon carbide. Each waveguide lens needs a hefty amount of this material compared to an electronic chip, and existing capabilities can be leveraged into this new venture. Expanding production is key, and there’s exciting progress from four-inch to eight-inch wafers, with ambitions for even larger sizes.

Barry Silverstein emphasized that the world has woken up to the dynamic capabilities of silicon carbide flexing across electronics to photonics and even potentially quantum computing. The outlook on reducing costs significantly is promising, yet there’s a lot of terrain left to cover. The potential gains are substantial.

This isn’t the first instance where XR headsets have piggybacked on larger, consumer-focused industry strides. Back in the early 2010s, affordable, compact displays crafted for smartphones were crucial in kickstarting the consumer VR craze. For instance, if you’ve ever peered inside an Oculus Rift DK2 from 2014, you’d notice it featured a Galaxy Note 3 display panel right at its core, Samsung logo and all.

There are numerous other components, lifted from the smartphone parts bin over the years, including inertial measurement units, camera sensors, and battery tech. Although similar, benefiting from the silicon carbide victories propelled by EV developments is still more complex in the context of AR glasses.

Suppliers are keen on producing photonics-grade silicon carbide, yet it remains a niche within a niche that needs years to blossom. This is essentially why Meta can’t mass-produce Orion just yet. Nevertheless, Meta is currently using Orion as an internal developer kit of sorts, hoping to roll out consumer AR glasses by 2030, priced akin to a phone or laptop, as per Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth’s revelations this past September.

The massive consumer appeal is undeniable. Somehow these puzzle pieces are destined to align, with tech giants like Meta, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm all vying for a chunk of the upcoming mobile computing frontier, ultimately looking to replace smartphones.