Meta Ray-Ban waveguides spark 2D pupil-expanding designs

The author reviews 2026 trends in augmented reality waveguides, noting a market shift toward reflective and two-grating diffractive waveguide designs following recent industry introductions by Meta and others. Reflective waveguides, long dominated by Lumus, are seeing increased prototyping of 2-D pupil-expanding designs from companies like Optinvent, Optix, Canon, and Envision Photonics, though manufacturing challenges and optical uniformity issues remain. Meanwhile, diffractive waveguides are increasingly adopting two-grating structures and silicon carbide materials to improve compactness and performance. Open article →