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COMPONENT STUDY

LCoS microdisplays in AR glasses

Understand how a liquid-crystal-on-silicon panel forms the image in display glasses, and separate a teardown-identified panel from one that is only marketed.

Liquid crystal on a CMOS backplane modulates each pixel’s polarization. Teardowns identify an OmniVision LCoS panel in Meta Ray-Ban Display; OmniVision’s catalog OP03011 is 648 × 648 pixels at 3.8 µm with a MIPI-DSI input.

How does an LCoS panel make an image?

LCoS is a reflective panel: a liquid-crystal layer on a CMOS backplane changes the polarization of light at each pixel but makes no light of its own. Red, green and blue LEDs flash in turn while the panel shows each color field. A polarizing beam splitter sends the light onto the panel and passes only light from switched-on pixels toward the projection lens, which prepares it for the waveguide. OmniVision’s catalog OP03011, for example, is a 648 × 648 panel with 3.8 µm pixels, a MIPI-DSI input and field-sequential color.

Teardown-identified or marketed?

OmniVision’s LCoS panel is teardown-identified in Meta Ray-Ban Display (TechInsights, June 2026); OmniVision has not confirmed. iFixit and KGOnTech both read the part number OP03010 on the panel’s flex. Himax markets front-lit LCoS for AR glasses: its 720 × 720 panel, shown with an AUO waveguide at CES 2026, is being evaluated by technology companies and AR-glasses makers, with no named shipping customer. Kopin markets FLCoS microdisplays for near-eye training, simulation and medical uses, with no current consumer-glasses win in our sources. Snap describes a proprietary LCoS display system in Specs without naming the panel maker.

What can a teardown not tell you?

A teardown records one unit at one point in time. It does not show price, volume or exclusivity. It does not show whether the next model keeps the same panel, so a new Meta display model needs its own teardown before any maker is carried over. It can show how much of a panel is used: Meta specifies 600 × 600 pixels, while the catalog sibling has 648 × 648. KGOnTech attributes the engine’s optical design to Goertek, based on industry hearsay and a matching patent application; it is not confirmed by Meta or Goertek, and Goertek’s optics business now sits in Goertek Optical, an associate.

How to research an LCoS microdisplay company

  1. Name the panel type first. LCoS, micro-OLED and microLED are different technologies with different makers, so a micro-OLED maker is not an LCoS maker.
  2. Rank the evidence you have: a teardown that names the part, a customer or partner release, or a product marketed for glasses with no named customer.
  3. Record the device and the date. A teardown of one model does not carry over to the next.
  4. Separate the panel from the light engine and the waveguide; a display module combines parts from several companies.
  5. Check the listing you would own: OmniVision’s shares trade in Shanghai and Hong Kong, with no US line.
  6. Use the list as a starting point: it is curated, not exhaustive, and the model is illustrative, not a bill of materials.

Sources

Engineering reference: LCoS projection engine example. Company-specific evidence is linked from the profiles below.

Explore the complete microdisplays & light engines sector · Read the mapping methodology

Related company research

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