For decades, breakthroughs in optics have largely been measured by what engineers could design, not by what manufacturers could produce at scale. Researchers have demonstrated that ultra-thin metaoptics can manipulate light in ways conventional glass lenses cannot, promising smaller devices, lower costs, and entirely new capabilities. Yet despite years of excitement, most of those advances have remained confined to laboratories, limited by manufacturing processes that are expensive, difficult to scale, and largely adapted from semiconductor fabrication. John Fijol believes that gap between innovation and manufacturability has become the industry’s biggest challenge. As CEO of Myrias Optics, he is leading a company focused not simply on inventing better optics, but on building the manufacturing platform that could finally make them commercially viable.
The technology behind Myrias began more than a decade ago in the laboratory of founder Dr. James Watkins at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Rather than rushing promising research into the market, the team waited until several trends converged. Demand for augmented reality, AI infrastructure, advanced imaging, and high performance optical systems were all accelerating just as Myrias’ proprietary manufacturing approach had matured enough to offer meaningful advantages over conventional methods. For Fijol, who has spent his career commercializing electro-optic technologies and has now helped lead four startups, the timing represented the rare intersection of breakthrough science, market demand, and scalable manufacturing.
“The right time to take this out was when a convergence of need in the market meets an application where we have unique advantages,” Fijol explains. “Metaoptics and AR waveguides are both rapidly growing technology areas that need this capability. Those conditions create the opportunity to build a successful business.”
While many companies developing metaoptics continue to rely on semiconductor-style fabrication techniques, Myrias has taken a fundamentally different approach. Traditional semiconductor processing requires multiple complex etching steps, expensive lithography equipment, and materials that often limit applications to infrared wavelengths. Myrias instead creates a single precision master and then replicates millions of optical devices through a proprietary nanoimprint process using all-inorganic materials. The result is a manufacturing platform capable of producing optics that span visible imaging, sensors, telecommunications, and infrared applications while significantly reducing cost and manufacturing complexity.
That manufacturing advantage shapes how Fijol thinks about disruption. Rather than competing to produce slightly cheaper versions of existing lenses, Myrias focuses on replacing complex optical assemblies with single components that deliver greater functionality while simplifying production. Metaoptics can combine the work of multiple conventional lenses into one ultra-thin surface, reducing assembly costs while enabling optical functions that traditional refractive systems cannot easily achieve. In emerging markets such as augmented reality waveguides, where the optical performance of existing polymer-based solutions have stagnated below consumer expectations and semiconductor manufacturing approaches struggle to achieve acceptable economics, Fijol believes Myrias’ inorganic imprinting capability offers an entirely new path forward.
Although the company’s technology has applications across consumer electronics, defense, industrial automation, and automotive sensing, one opportunity in metaoptics stands out above the rest. As artificial intelligence drives explosive demand for faster data movement inside data centers, optical interconnects have become one of the industry’s most pressing engineering challenges. Fijol sees this rapidly expanding datacom market as one of Myrias’ largest long-term growth opportunities, complementing an already strong customer base in augmented reality. The company’s manufacturing platform can support applications ranging from optical coupling and polarization control to next-generation co-packaged optics, positioning Myrias at the center of an increasingly photonic future.
Commercializing deep technology requires more than breakthrough science. It also requires discipline about where to create value. Rather than attempting to vertically integrate every aspect of production from the outset, Myrias has adopted to partner with key players in the ecosystem to accelerate time to market and to maintain a cost effective organization. The company partners with established contract manufacturers in Asia that already operate AR waveguide nanoimprint facilities, allowing Myrias’ materials to serve as a drop-in replacement while customers gain higher refractive indices, improved reliability, and better performance. At the same time, the company is investing in its own Massachusetts manufacturing facility, supported by more than $8 million in non-dilutive grant funding. Fijol says this strategy enables faster commercialization while preserving capital and allowing the business to scale methodically.
Investors have responded not only to the size of the opportunity but also to the economics behind the platform. Semiconductor fabrication facilities require enormous capital investments, numerous processing steps, and constant attention to manufacturing yield. Myrias’ replication process reduces much of that complexity to a single primary manufacturing step, enabling millions of devices to be produced rapidly with fewer opportunities for defects and higher yield. Combined with a mature patent portfolio protecting both its materials and manufacturing processes, the company believes it has built an economic model capable of supporting large-scale production without the cost structure traditionally associated with advanced optics manufacturing.
For Fijol, the broader vision extends well beyond individual products. He sees manufacturing as the missing piece that will enable metaoptics to become a foundational technology powering the next generation of computing, communications, and imaging systems. As industries increasingly demand smaller, lighter, and more capable optical hardware, he believes companies that can manufacture advanced optics efficiently will define the future of the field.
“We always like to emphasize manufacturability,” Fijol says. “Whether it’s a new approach to manufacturing, a cost-effective approach, or simply the advantages of replication, that’s really where we believe the industry is headed.”
