The collaboration prioritizes scalability and manufacturability toward a first mass-market production run of specialized contact-lens micro-displays, moving closer to commercial readiness for AR lenses.

This work continues progress in AR contact lens development, underscoring micro-displays as a key remaining commercial hurdle for practical implementations.

The goal is to tackle key AR display challenges for contact lenses, focusing on ultra-small form factors, power efficiency, and optical comfort to enable practical AR use.

Brightness management is essential due to proximity to the eye; the system aims for adequate on-eye visibility at low brightness to enhance ocular safety and reduce power use.

XPANCEO and JBD have expanded their collaboration to co-develop a custom micro-display for direct integration into smart contact lenses, marking the project’s second phase.

To reach ultra-low power, the project requires a specialized micro-display backplane architecture optimized for low current operation, diverging from conventional high-current backplanes used for brighter LEDs.

In the initial proof-of-concept, the teams built a PCB with an integrated micro-display connected to a lens processing unit and an optical system that forms a precise image near the eye, while enabling wireless powering to avoid bulky components.

The micro-display is designed to be ultra-thin, with a diameter of a fraction of a millimeter, and must remain comfortable to wear at roughly the thickness of a human hair.