LightPath Technologies Wins Prestigious PRISM Award for Its New Freeform Optics
Technology to Enable Metaverse and LIDAR
ORLANDO, FL / ACCESSWIRE / January 28, 2022 / LightPath Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPTH) ("LightPath," the "Company," or "we"), a leading vertically integrated global manufacturer and integrator of proprietary optical and infrared components and high-level assemblies, today announced that its new freeform optics has won the 2022 Prism Award for Manufacturing. The Prism Awards is an annual international competition that honors the best new optics and photonics products on the market. Winners were announced on January 26, 2022 in San Francisco, CA, as part of the SPIE Photonics West one of the industry's most important events of the year.
Since 2008, SPIE, along with media partner Photonics Media, has presented awards to companies and individuals that are creating products that make a difference, solve problems, and improve life through photonics.
Sam Rubin, President and Chief Executive Officer of LightPath Technologies, said, "We take great pride in our new freeform optics technology winning the prestigious Prism Award, which is a celebration of the best technologies that our industry has to offer. I would like to congratulate our engineering, product development and marketing teams for their efforts in creating this new line of innovative optics. In October 2021, LightPath announced the addition of freeform optics to its portfolio of high performance, next-generation custom molded optical solutions. The market's reception has been overwhelming and we are actively engaging with incredible partners on many next generation consumer electronics, LIDAR, and defense technologies, just to name a few areas of considerable traction. For LightPath with its new freeform optics, LIDAR and the metaverse is becoming a reality and is expected to be integral to our global growth initiatives."
As part of the Prism Award entry, LightPath noted that its proprietary processes for manufacturing freeform optics and the inherent qualities of the materials used are the key to producing smaller and lighter augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) glasses that look more like conventional eyeglasses and less like the cumbersome and bulky AR/VR goggles of today, while traditional manufacturing methods make mass commercialization of freeform optics cost-prohibitive. Additionally, with freeform optics, LIDAR systems can achieve larger field of views and lower losses, which in turn translate to higher resolution images and the ability to extend detection distances. Through several years of intensive development and innovation, LightPath has developed a method to bring complex freeform optics to the mass market utilizing precision glass molding, thereby significantly lowering the cost of freeform optics, and reducing the cost of the next generation AR/VR goggles to price points that allow mainstream consumers to participate.
Freeform optics involve lenses with surface shapes that lack certain symmetrical attributes which make them more challenging to mass produce but provide improved aperture, field of view and miniaturization. By utilizing LightPath's proprietary molding technology, the Company can mass produce molded freeform optics, rather than fabricating optical elements individually, as it is done today by other manufacturers. High precision optical elements with freeform surfaces can offer the optimal solution in many high-performance optical applications by allowing more complex surface profiles that can provide beam shaping. Through the deployment of freeform optics, many optical systems can be miniaturized, and the number of elements reduced, resulting in optical systems that are smaller, lighter weight, and yield better performance than ever before.
Freeform optics are becoming a key element in applications such AR/VR, infrared and military optical systems and 3-D imaging and visualization. Many times, these systems require the higher performance and more compact form factor that freeform optics can provide, allowing increased flexibility and overall size, weight and power (SWaP) optimization. The adoption of freeform optics in such applications has been limited due to the manufacturing technology that, to date, could not be scaled economically. This is a problem that has now been solved by LightPath's leading expertise in molded optics. Using its proprietary molding technology, LightPath has shipped tens of millions of field devices over the last 25 years for many other lens and lens assembly product families.
About LightPath Technologies
LightPath Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPTH) is a leading global, vertically integrated provider of optics, photonics and infrared solutions for the industrial, commercial, defense, telecommunications, and medical industries. LightPath designs and manufactures proprietary optical and infrared components including molded glass aspheric lenses and assemblies, custom molded glass freeform lenses, infrared lenses and thermal imaging assemblies, fused fiber collimators, and proprietary Black DiamondTM ("BD6") chalcogenide-based glass lenses. LightPath also offers custom optical assemblies, including full engineering design support. The Company is headquartered in Orlando, Florida, with manufacturing and sales offices in Latvia and China.
LightPath's wholly-owned subsidiary, ISP Optics Corporation, manufactures a full range of infrared products from high performance MWIR and LWIR lenses and lens assemblies. ISP's infrared lens assembly product line includes athermal lens systems used in cooled and un-cooled thermal imaging cameras. Manufacturing is performed in-house to provide precision optical components including spherical, aspherical and diffractive coated infrared lenses. ISP's optics processes allow it to manufacture its products from all important types of infrared materials and crystals. Manufacturing processes include CNC grinding and CNC polishing, diamond turning, continuous and conventional polishing, optical contacting and advanced coating technologies.
For more information on LightPath and its businesses, please visit www.lightpath.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes statements that constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "forecast," "guidance," "plan," "estimate," "will," "would," "project," "maintain," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "prospect," "strategy," "future," "likely," "may," "should," "believe," "continue," "opportunity," "potential," and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters, and include, for example, statements related to the expected effects on the Company's business from the COVID-19 pandemic. These forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time the statements are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the duration and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic and impact on the demand for the Company products; the ability of the Company to obtain needed raw materials and components from its suppliers; actions governments, businesses, and individuals take in response to the pandemic, including restrictions on onsite commercial interactions; the impact of the pandemic and actions taken in response to the pandemic on global and regional economies and economic activity; the pace of recovery when the COVID-19 pandemic subsides; general economic uncertainty in key global markets and a worsening of global economic conditions or low levels of economic growth; the effects of steps that the Company could take to reduce operating costs; the inability of the Company to sustain profitable sales growth, convert inventory to cash, or reduce its costs to maintain competitive prices for its products; circumstances or developments that may make the Company unable to implement or realize the anticipated benefits, or that may increase the costs, of its current and planned business initiatives; and those factors detailed by LightPath Technologies, Inc. in its public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on 10-Q. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties, or facts materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those indicated or anticipated by the forward-looking statements contained herein. Accordingly, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Except as required under the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, we do not have any intention or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Company Contacts:
Mark Palvino, VP of Global Sales
LightPath Technologies, Inc.
Tel: 407-382-4003
mpalvino@lightpath.com
Rob Myers, Product Manager
LightPath Technologies, Inc.
Tel: 407-382-4003
rmyers@lightpath.com
Investor Contact:
Jordan Darrow
Darrow Associates
Tel. 631-766-4528
jdarrow@darrowir.com
SOURCE: LightPath Technologies, Inc.
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