Integrating sphere and light measurement specialist Labsphere announced the acquisition of Photon Gear, which focuses on the design and manufacture of ultra-precision custom optical systems and lens assemblies and has multi-wavelength interferometric testing capabilities. The deal value was not disclosed. Combined, Labsphere will pair its light generation, control and measurement platforms with custom lens assembly and interferometric testing capabilities to serve customers in semiconductors, aerospace and defense.
A team led by the University of Central Florida (UCF) will receive a five-year, $19.2 million grant from the US Army Research Office to study light propagation and control in complex dynamic environments. The project, led by Guifang Li, will explore weak backscattering coherent measurement, inverse methods, AI analysis and multi-plane light conversion, with the goal of measuring and rapidly correcting light field distortions when remote sensors or beacons cannot be placed. Potential applications include directed-energy systems, biological tissue imaging, laser medicine, remote sensing and free-space optical communications.
ASML said its existing 2027 and 2028 supply plans cannot fully meet customer demand and that it is studying a further expansion of 2028 capacity beyond the previously planned 30% increase. Quarterly sales through September 27 were EUR 11.7 billion, up more than 50% year over year. The NXE:3800F EUV lithography system slated for introduction next year will raise productivity from 230 to 260 wafers per hour.
Why we recommend it: Capacity expansion and productivity upgrades are proceeding in parallel, offering concrete industry clues on how AI demand translates into EUV lithography equipment supply constraints.
Hyundai Mobis has sold its automotive lighting business to France's OPmobility for an enterprise value of about $443 million; the business posted 2025 revenue of about EUR 1.6 billion. Meanwhile, Xingyu has joined the global top 10 in automotive lighting, while BYD, Leapmotor and Great Wall Motor are bringing lighting production into their own factories.
NVIDIA and Cisco jointly announced plans for the USFP (Ultra-Small Form Factor Pluggable) optical module on October 12. This high-density pluggable optical module supports 400Gb/s per lane and targets the scaling needs of next-generation AI factory networks, helping control network complexity, power consumption and cost as connection scale grows.
Why we recommend it: The article explains the motivation behind two leading vendors jointly defining a new package form factor, helping assess the evolution of optical module formats for AI networks
A paper in Light: Science & Applications uses topology-optimized dielectric nanocavities to enhance exciton emission from monolayer WSe2, offering stronger and customizable light-matter interactions for on-chip quantum optics, nonlinear optics and low-threshold lasers.
Kunyou Optoelectronics announced the completion of a C+ round exceeding 1 billion yuan, with investors undisclosed. The company's 12-inch wafer-level optics production line in Lingang, Shanghai, built with an investment of 2 billion yuan, is expected to be completed and come online in 2027, targeting AR, fiber optics, optical communications, automotive optics and optical computing markets. This follows its C round in January 2026 and a C+ round of nearly 400 million yuan in April.
Why we recommend it: The article lists three funding rounds this year and progress on the 12-inch wafer-level optics line, helping understand capital and capacity deployment in wafer-level optics
Multiphysics simulation software vendor COMSOL has wrapped up COMSOL Conference 2026 in Boston, following earlier events in Cambridge and other locations. The year-end conference series highlighted user case studies and new software features.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the US Department of Transportation announced a modernization of what it calls outdated vehicle lighting standards.
Vuzix has launched the configurable Shrike waveguide display platform for defense, security and emergency response applications, with the first samples already shipped to customers.
Why we recommend it: The original article gives a specific product bringing waveguide displays into the defense market, helping to understand non-consumer markets for AR waveguides
A Laser Focus World article notes that optical designs can meet specifications yet still fail at the system level, for example when imaging instrument output is interpreted by algorithms rather than the human eye. The article advocates using virtual prototyping to evaluate system performance before building hardware.
Optikos, an optical engineering and manufacturing services provider, announced on September 29 the acquisition of Omega Optical, bringing design, manufacturing and testing under one ownership to deliver a complete optical workflow.
Suzhou Chenling Optics had its acquisition by Hasan Co. terminated in December 2025 over valuation disagreements, but in the same period it secured leading clients including Luxshare Precision and Dongshan Precision, and extended its optical inspection business into robotics.
The article argues that 2026 is the first year of optical waveguide mass production, with multiple production capacities of one million units coming online, but capacity expansion does not equal stable mass production. The core barrier has shifted from whether it can be done to whether it can be done consistently at high yield. The three major bottlenecks in materials, processes and inspection are interlinked, requiring end-to-end system capabilities.
During CIOE 2026, Xiong Guanhao, Senior Director of Strategy and Marketing at Sunny Optics, said AI is moving from the cloud into the physical world, while optics is evolving from an imaging tool into a gateway through which AI acquires information, understands the world and transmits data.
Lianchuang Electronics acknowledged on September 17 that short-term funding pressure had delayed July salary payments for some employees. Its subsidiaries added CNY 46.67 million in overdue debt, bringing the total to CNY 360 million, or 33.92% of the latest audited net assets. The article argues that expansion, weak profitability and softening demand have jointly weighed on its automotive optics business.
Fujian Forecam announced on September 17 that it plans to invest about RMB 110 million of remaining raised funds in a multi-field precision optical components industrialization project and a high-performance aerospace optical lens R&D project, with the precision optical components project carrying a total investment of RMB 87.0416 million.
Hongshi Intelligence has formed a strategic partnership with Cao Liangcai's team in Tsinghua University's Department of Precision Instruments to tackle the narrowing of light emission angles and optical energy losses in MicroLED microdisplay light sources, supporting lightweight optical engines for AI glasses.
SICC said it is working with leading optics customers to deliver products in micro- and nano-optics, but optical-grade silicon carbide remains in the early stage of demand release, making the timing of meaningful revenue hard to predict.
Hamamatsu China held an SLM industrial laser processing seminar in Shenzhen on September 8, bringing together nearly 200 experts to exchange views on ultrafast laser precision manufacturing and micro- and nano-processing applications.