Optics

Manufacturing optical components at micro-scale dimensions, ranging from tens and hundreds of microns (micro-optics) to a few millimetres (miniaturized optics), remains a significant technological challenge. This complexity intensifies significantly for free-form surfaces, which lack symmetry and demand exceptional precision.

At the intersection of innovation and precision, FEMTOPRINT empowers engineers and system designers with cutting-edge solutions for advanced optics, which, as an enabling technology, drives breakthroughs across several domains such as optical interconnects, consumer electronics, medical devices, and quantum. However, defining optics as a “market” is truly limiting—it is, in truth, the backbone of future innovation.

Our focus lies in 3D glass microfabrication, a pioneering approach that redefines what is possible in glass-based miniaturized optical systems and micro-optics.

Tackling Today’s Challenges in Advanced Optics

The industry faces growing demands for precision, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.

We serve clients who need miniaturized optical components and systems (typically a few millimeters) or micro-optical devices (ranging from tens to hundreds of microns). Key challenges include:

- Adoption of a new manufacturing technology: Laser microfabrication represents a new solution for the manufacturing of optical components. We support clients in assessing the manufacturability of their advanced optical devices with our maskless laser processing , which, differently from standard technologies, allows for both fully free-form surfaces and monolithic integration of several functionalities.

- Rapid development cycles: Nowadays staying competitive means being able to rapidly test innovative solutions without sacrificing performance and to implement them into new products without compromising on reliability. We use our fast-prototyping platform to support customers in accelerating their development cycles for the effective adoption of new disruptive optical components.

- Production scalability: Both new manufacturing technologies and innovative miniaturized/micro-optical devices can be adopted only when production can be rapidly and effectively scaled up. Our wafer-level manufacturing platform guarantees clients seamless scalability from prototyping to pilot production up to high-volume manufacturing.

Common Pain to Solve in the Optics Market?

Our Clients needs:

• advanced manufacturing to enable disruptive optics solutions.
• low system complexity to reduce the costs for assembly and packaging.
• rapid prototyping to accelerate product development cycles.
• diversified supply chains to access multiple vendors and avoid supply disruption.
• production scale up to seamlessly enable industrial-level glass microfabrication.

Our Value Proposition

Here, how we meet those needs:

• design-for-manufacturing (DFM) services to ensure the manufacturability of disruptive optics solutions with scalable production processes.
• monolithic integration of multiple optical and non-optical functionalities in a single transparent glass component to ease assembly and packaging.
• fast turnaround cycles to enable manufacturability assessment and optimization iterations on a scale of weeks.
• highly automatized wafer-level production technology to offer reliable production capabilities from low to high volumes.
• seamless transition to production to support clients from proof of concept and feasibility to prototyping and high-volume manufacturing.

The above unique selling points enable us to directly support demands for high-throughput production of Micro- and Miniaturized Optics.

What We Deliver

• Miniaturized optical components and systems consisting of complex fully 3D freeform optical elements in glass,.
• Micro-optical components, including micro-lenses, micro-mirrors, and micro-lens arrays (MLAs).
• Design-for-manufacturing (DFM) services combining optical simulation capabilities with extensive process know-how and manufacturing intelligence.

What Sets Us Apart

• Our true 3D shaping capabilities go beyond the 2.5D limits of standard lithography.
• We offer wafer-scale production of glass microdevices—with optical surface finish and micron-scale dimensional accuracy.
• We micro-machine exclusively glass, which has clear competitive advantages with respect to other materials (e.g. polymers): thermal stability, optical grade and applicability (qualification) for a broad range of applications.

Whether you are exploring beam shaping, light management, imaging, miniaturization, or optical connectivity, FEMTOPRINT is your trusted partner in innovation.

Contact us to explore what we can create together.