Microvision had a busy holiday period and confirmed that it has sold 2 million shares worth $1.07 to Ben Lawrence-Farhi, after he was unable “for logistical reasons” to take part in a recent public offering of shares which raised around $13 million for general corporate purposes and was full subscribed.
Separately, the company said that it has started to ship samples of its small form factor display engine (model number PSE-0403-101) which is a compact laser beam scanning engine measuring 3.6 x 5.3 x 0.6 cm with a volume of only 11.6 cc. The sleek form factor and thinness of the engine is claimed to make it a good choice for products such as smartphones, portable media players, tablets and other handheld electronics. A short focal length version of the engine, model number PSE-0403-102, is aimed at the aftermarket head up display (HUD) applications and other applications with a fixed, short focal length.
The PSE-0403-101/2 display engine is an all-in-one unit combining an integrated photonics module (IPM) containing MEMS and lasers and an electronics platform module (EPM) containing MicroVision’s proprietary ASICS and system control software. The company said that some customers prefer a flexible solution of the IPM and standalone MicroVision ASICS that they can combine with the electronics of the device into which the engine is embedded. The form factor of the IPM, which measures 4.66 cubic centimeters, is a critical attribute for OEMS considering incorporating pico projectors inside their consumer products.
In addition to the PSE-0403-101/2 engines, MicroVision plans to offer two other scanning engines: an interactive display engine that can support simultaneous projected display and multi-touch interactivity with the projected images and a sensing engine for mid-range LiDAR. Samples of the interactive display engine are planned for the second quarter of 2017 with production engines expected in Q3 of 2017. The company expects to begin shipping samples of the mid-range LiDAR engine in the second half of 2017 with production units planned for first half of 2018.
