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

Creating a cutting-edge pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses is no small feat, and Meta’s Orion prototype stands as a testament to that, each pair costing a hefty $10,000. A significant chunk of this high cost is tied to the custom silicon carbide waveguide lenses, a key component that Meta believes it can eventually produce more affordably.

Silicon carbide isn’t new in the tech world. It’s favored for making high-power chips due to its superior power efficiency and lower heat output compared to regular silicon. However, turning silicon carbide into usable components is no picnic, thanks to the complex properties of the material and the challenges involved in its crystal growth and fabrication process.

While electric vehicles (EVs) are currently driving down the price of silicon carbide, reaching a cost level akin to silicon-based alternatives is still a distant goal. There’s potential for its use in quantum computing as well, although that’s a challenge that stands apart from Meta’s ambitions with this advanced material.

Meta’s interest in silicon carbide goes beyond its power and thermal properties; it’s all about its high refractive index. This characteristic makes it perfect for crafting clear, wide field-of-view waveguides integral to AR glasses, offering a remarkable 70-degree field of view in Orion. In contrast, users have described the switch from conventional multi-layered glass to Orion’s silicon carbide waveguides as transformative, likening it to stepping from a chaotic disco to a serene symphony.

Optical Scientist Pasqual Rivera encapsulated this experience, explaining that traditional glass-based waveguides with multiple layers created distracting rainbow effects, making it hard to focus on AR content. Switching to silicon carbide waveguides, however, allowed users to immerse themselves fully in the AR environment, marking a game-changing shift.

This drive to make silicon carbide more ubiquitous is echoed in the automotive sector, where EV manufacturers have latched onto the material, thus helping to drive down costs. Giuseppe Calafiore from Reality Lab highlights how “there’s an overcapacity [due to EVs] that didn’t exist when we were building Orion,” which has already begun to bring substrate costs down. However, the silicon carbide used in EVs isn’t suitable for optical applications, which complicates matters.

Nonetheless, some manufacturers are intrigued by the prospect of producing optical-grade silicon carbide, seeing the potential growth as factories scale from smaller four-inch wafers to precursors of 12-inch wafers, which could exponentially increase the number of AR glasses produced, according to Barry Silverstein, Director of Research Science at Reality Labs.

Silverstein also emphasizes this burgeoning opportunity, noting that while the journey to reduce costs is extensive, the potential applications of silicon carbide in various fields like quantum computing are vast. The material’s ability to bridge electronics and photonics highlights a promising future, even though ample groundwork remains.

The XR industry has thrived before on the back of consumer tech advances; for instance, early consumer VR headsets benefited from smartphone displays, like the Oculus Rift DK2’s reliance on a Galaxy Note 3 panel, among other shared components like IMUs and cameras. Yet, utilizing the silicon carbide potential spurred by the EV sector’s boom faces distinct hurdles.

While suppliers are eyeing the production of photonics-grade silicon carbide, achieving significant scale remains a slow process. This bottleneck is a major reason why Meta hasn’t yet commercialized Orion. Yet, Meta is leveraging Orion as an “internal developer kit,” aiming to deliver consumer-grade AR glasses in the near future—hopefully before 2030, with a price point within the range of typical electronic devices like phones and laptops, according to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth.

Despite these challenges, the potential for widespread consumer appeal is tantalizing. With tech giants like Meta, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm in the chase, the race to dominate the next mobile computing platform—the one that could possibly push smartphones out of the picture—is very much on.