If you look around at the most important sectors and themes in Tech, of course AI keeps coming up. But look a little closer, and you’ll see that optics is also one of the most foundational technologies. A fun (and far from exhaustive) list:

  • Fiber optics: this is what powers communications across the internet, inside datacenters, etc.
  • Semiconductors: powers everything in Tech, and fabricated using the most advanced optics (extreme ultraviolet lithography) on the planet
  • Solar cells: photovoltaic devices that convert light to electricity
  • LED lighting: optical devices that convert electricity to light
  • Large panel displays/TVs: optical pixel technologies for brighter, sharper, faster, and more immersive visual experience
  • AR/VR: head mounted miniaturized and very low power optics for immersive experience on the move
  • Smart phone cameras: miniaturized optical devices that generate the videos and photos that fill up the internet
  • Lidar: 3D optical sensors for autonomous vehicles, robots, etc.
  • Genomic sequencing: to understand DNA/RNA/etc., and made possible by advanced optical microscopes

So what is behind this optics renaissance? Is it just a random coincidence?

I think a lot of this can be explained by 4 key trends in the past few decades:

  1. Beginning in the 1990’s and 2000’s, the rise of the internet drove huge spending in new infrastructure and R&D for fiber optics communications, which led to higher performance and lower cost for many key technologies such as lasers, optical materials such as gallium nitride, and more efficient manufacturing technologies to miniaturize and to integrate optics with electronics.
  2. In the past 15 years, the mass adoption of smart phones with cameras led to massive volumes, much higher performance, and much lower costs for key technologies such as camera sensors, high resolution displays, wireless communications, batteries, etc.
  3. The torrent of data from all the videos and photos created by the smart phone cameras led to new use cases and drove the advancement of computer vision and other AI, which in turn drove new use cases and even more videos and photos. These new use cases required better ways for users to be immersed, such as large displays and AR/VR. And all of this created additional demand for internet infrastructure and optical communications technologies, and continued to accelerate the flywheel.
  4. As these optics and related technologies accelerated in performance and dropped in price, adjacent fields such as the life sciences, energy, robotics, and transportation were able to leverage those technolgies in new ways.

In my numerous meeting with deep tech startups every week, I have certainly noticed how optics technologies come up more and more. It’s an exciting time to be in the space!

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