Mr. Mark Komonoski reports

METAMATERIAL ACQUIRES ASSETS AND IP OF SWISS LENS MANUFACTURER INTERGLASS

Metamaterial Inc. has acquired specialized lens casting production equipment and intellectual property, including more than 70 patents, from Interglass Technology AG (Switzerland) for $800,000 (U.S.). Metamaterial will invest and expand its capabilities in design, development and manufacturing of Metafusion products for smart eyewear. This highly integrated solution combines embedded metamaterial and functional film elements with precision cast corrective lenses, which are required by over 50 per cent of potential users in the market.

"One of the challenges in augmented reality (AR) eyeglasses, which Mark Zuckerberg so eloquently pointed out as a category killer, is to ensure that light from the AR display does not make the wearer look like an automaton, due to user-display-lit eye glow -- especially at night. META successfully pioneered laser and security eyeglass filtering, to combat powerful pen pointers, for our customers like Airbus. Under a new brand name, Metafusion, we are now applying that proven technology and other functionality directly encapsulated into eyeglasses, to complement waveguide-based displays similar to HoloLens," noted Jonathan Waldern, chief technology officer. "The AR eyeglass display is one of the most complex engineering challenges of our time, and only advanced metamaterials, incorporated into the eyeglass lenses, will likely provide an acceptable solution."

"Any augmented and virtual reality eyewear solution, whether from a major OEM or a startup, will need to address the need for prescription lenses. Metafusion will combine the Interglass platform with META's technology to offer embedded metamaterial solutions for on-demand precision casting of prescription lenses. In addition, the associated patents would be valuable to any company participating in this eyewear market. On the same production system, we will be able to offer embedded functionality such as combiners, waveguides and eye tracking sensors. These same integrated lenses can also enable much more compact HMDs for virtual reality," said Gardner Wade, chief product officer.

Interglass assets include specialized equipment, more than 70 patents

Combining the technology, equipment, and IP from Interglass with Metamaterial's metamaterial design and nanofabrication platform is expected to provide more elegant, powerful and fully integrated solutions across a range of HMD applications. Metamaterial is acquiring from Interglass Technology AG (in liquidation) lens casting equipment and related workstations and software, tools, and test equipment, along with intellectual property including patents, trademarks, know-how, technical data, proprietary software, designs and trade secrets. Interglass has more than 70 international patents in the field of casting processes for high-quality plastic lenses or other optical components based on ultraviolet curing acrylics. Moreover, the Interglass process is highly sustainable, which will help to support Metamaterial's sustainability initiatives.

Metafusion benefits: performance and sustainability

Metafusion lenses are directly cast into the final correction using a library of more than 2,000 prescription molds. This requires significantly less material, energy and water compared with conventional production, which involves milling and grinding an oversized lens blank. The Metafusion production process requires a fraction of the energy. Typically, a corrective lens is cured in about 50 hours at greater than 100 degrees -- the Metafusion technology just needs 10 seconds. Since Metafusion lenses are poured and do not need grinding, no water is required in the production process. The Metafusion coating process, based on plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD), is environmentally friendly and achieves superior scratch and abrasion resistance without using wet chemistry.

Metafusion allows functional metamaterial films to be directly encapsulated within a prescription lens, supporting applications in augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) as well as a range of features including integrated see-through dimming to manage battery life, eye tracking to optimize resolution, latency and 5G data bandwidth, focusing, and eye-glow management. These films not only perform optical origami but combine to form a solid-state lens able to withstand the shock and environmental conditions for everyday work or consumer use.

Metamaterial joins LOT Network

Combining its existing portfolio with the Interglass acquisition, Metamaterial now owns more than 160 patents. To protect these valuable assets, Metamaterial has joined LOT Network, an international community of the world's leading high-tech companies committed to protecting its members from costly patent troll litigation. LOT Network currently protects more than 1,100 members in 36 countries from litigation from over three million worldwide patents. Members include market leaders such as Covestro, IBM, Toyota, Visa, Canon, Google, Tesla, Cisco, Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba and Salesforce, as well as other innovative companies across industries.

About Metamaterial Inc.

Metamaterial is changing the way people use, interact with and benefit from light and other forms of energy. Metamaterial designs and manufactures advanced materials and performance functional films, which are engineered at the nanoscale to control light and other forms of energy. Metamaterial is an award-winning Global Cleantech 100 company with products that support sustainability by doing more with less; they encompass lightweight, sustainable raw materials and processes, which consume less energy and offer more performance. Metamaterial has a growing patent portfolio and is currently developing new materials with diverse applications in concert with companies in the automotive, aerospace, energy, consumer electronics and medical industries. Metamaterial is headquartered in Halifax, N.S., and has research and development and sales offices in London, United Kingdom, and Silicon Valley.

We seek Safe Harbor.