Building AR from the ground up: The power of vertical integration.
We’re not just developing augmented reality (AR) optics — we’re redefining how they’re made. Because Magic Leap is vertically integrated, it allows us to keep key processes in-house, from the handling of raw materials to final production. This helps us deliver unmatched precision, efficiency, and scalability to all of our clients.
Where it all begins
We first start with the raw glass wafers and substrates. Our proprietary processes allow us to refine and shape these materials into high-performance waveguides, delivering high levels of precision and efficiency.
We have also serialized our process, allowing our teams to track individual wafers and waveguides through their entire lifecycles, striving towards the highest quality.
This also lets us track and quickly remedy potential failures — going all the way back to the wafer’s inception. We can even do analyses without taking things apart, which itself can cause the loss of failure points.
Working in sync, no matter where we work
Collaboration is at the heart of our innovation. Our research and development and manufacturing teams are in constant discussion, enabling us to move forward quickly with new concepts and prototypes as we work together in lockstep.
Our innovation center also designs and builds custom tools and equipment to support our manufacturing needs. This helps us anticipate and even avert design and manufacturing challenges before they come up; this has been essential to rapidly scaling and creating AR devices.
Making the machines that make our products
We design and build our own patented machines and the software that controls them — like the LithoFlex350 — which are tailored specifically for AR manufacturing.
We were the first to use an inkjet-based imprint process (JFIL) for AR waveguides. This breakthrough technology sets a new industry standard in quality, yield, and cost efficiency. While others have tried to emulate this, our proprietary process remains unmatched in both quality and efficiency.
Better testing, for the best user experience
AR technology demands a seamless integration of optics, hardware, and software. That’s why rigorous testing and iteration are at the core of what we do. Our research and development teams are in constant collaboration to find efficiencies made possible through software innovations, simulations, and rapid cycles of learning.
And since we control the manufacturing process, we have greater flexibility and a rapid feedback loop that allows us to iterate and bring new designs to market faster. This includes using our own metrology equipment to provide rapid analysis and higher quality control - allowing us to quickly improve prototyping and manufacturing processes on the fly.
Our proprietary design tools also enable “cloud-based” modeling to predict real-world performance and act as a catalyst to help us rapidly iterate new prototypes.
Going deep on failure analysis
When you're working at the nano level, even the smallest deviations matter. That’s why our failure analysis lab uses advanced tools — including electron microscopes and medical-grade metrology machines — to detect the smallest inconsistencies. This deep-dive approach helps us refine our design and solve issues like fogging or vignetting, allowing us to push the boundaries of AR optics.
Scaling AR with precision and speed
Because of our rigorous development and manufacturing cycles, we can adapt quickly to optimize for different field of view (FOV) and cost needs, and scale production efficiently. Right now, we have the capability to mass-produce hundreds of thousands of AR eyepieces per year — using the thinnest waveguides and the widest range of FOV capabilities, at the lowest possible cost in our 14 year history.
With our proprietary technologies and processes, vertically integrated teams, and advanced manufacturing processes, we can rapidly ideate new concepts. Our experience enables us to research, test, and validate these ideas quickly so that we can rapidly manufacture and scale new device types and prototypes.
Learn more about our manufacturing practices.