Optics Start-Up Among Winners of Design AI and Tech Awards

Robotics firm and Sengkang hospital the other 2 winners of inaugural awards

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Home-grown semiconductor optics start-up MetaOptics Technologies, local autonomous cleaning robot firm LionsBot and Sengkang General Hospital clinched top honours at the inaugural Design AI and Tech Awards (Daita) on May 19.

Jointly organised by The Business Times (BT) and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), the competition aims to spur innovators from start-ups and companies to harness design and technology to develop ground-breaking solutions that tackle real-life business challenges.

Daita was launched in October 2024 with multi-asset investment firm Granite Asia as a supporting partner.

MetaOptics impressed the judges with its advanced colour metal-ens imaging system that features a single-glass layer alternative to traditional multi-layer curved plastic lenses.

Its deputy chief executive officer Aloysius Chua said in his presentation: "The challenge today with traditional three-dimensional optics is the bulkiness, complexity and high costs."

He explained that metalenses, also known as flat optics or 2D lenses, are single layers of glass made up of millions of circular pillars of varying diameters — each as thin as one-thousandth of a human hair — at the same height.

"MetaOptics is the first company to produce a single-layer metalens on a 12-inch glass wafer, working in visible light wavelengths and integrated into a camera to capture a colour image," said Mr Chua.

The start-up boasts proprietary AI software that sharpens and improves the vibrancy of the images captured, as well as a brightening algorithm that lights up dark areas without overexposing brighter sections.

Noting that the lenses are fabricated and assembled in Singapore, Mr Chua told BT: "We want Singapore to be the excellence centre of metalenses. We want to control the design and we want the key manufacturing supply chain to be in Singapore."