Presentation Abstract

Small, Bright, Efficient: Why Laser-LCoS is AR’s Next Leap

LCoS can deliver outstanding AR image quality—but illumination has often been the bottleneck: too bulky, too lossy, and too power-hungry for glasses-class designs. In this talk, we’ll show how a laser-based illumination architecture can remove that bottleneck and make Laser-LCoS a practical path to the next generation of AR displays.

Vitrealab’s Quantum Light Chip (QLC) integrates a three-dimensional waveguide network that routes RGB laser light and emits a controlled array of single-mode beams. The result is a compact, well-conditioned “light grid” optimized for LCoS modulation—maximizing optical efficiency while enabling high brightness in a simpler, smaller engine.

We’ll connect the photonics behind the approach to what matters most in AR glasses: longer battery life, larger field of view, and a clearer route to product-ready, scalable designs.

Dr. Ronny Timmreck – Chief Executive Officer, vitrealab

Dr. Ronny Timmreck is Chief Executive Officer of vitrealab, a Vienna-based photonics startup developing Quantum Light Chip (QLC) technology for augmented reality light engines. The QLC is a laser-based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that generates and precisely conditions laser light in an ultra-compact form factor—delivering the high brightness and energy efficiency required for consumer AR glasses at very small size. Ronny joined vitrealab as CEO in 2024 and is focused on taking the technology from advanced R&D to product readiness, building manufacturable modules, and executing the go-to-market with partners across the AR ecosystem (OEMs, ODMs, and component suppliers), while aligning financing and corporate governance to support rapid scaling.

A deep-tech entrepreneur and physicist with more than two decades of experience, he has repeatedly built and led technology ventures from inception to exit. He previously served as CEO of deepXscan, a semiconductor metrology equipment company, where he consolidated the product portfolio and completed an exit to a leading player in the field. Before that, as Founder and CEO of Senorics, a University of Technology Dresden spin-off developing miniaturized spectroscopy sensors based on organic electronics, he raised more than €12 million, advanced the core technology from lab research to industrialized products, and closed development and NRE programs with major consumer OEM customers; the company’s production know-how was acquired by ZEISS. Earlier in his career, Ronny founded leXsolar, a supplier of educational products for renewable energies, which he scaled into a highly profitable business with international reach and exited via a management buyout.

Ronny holds a PhD in Physics from University of Technology Dresden, where he worked on organic electronics. He has published as first author in Nature Photonics and other peer-reviewed journals, has received multiple awards for innovation and entrepreneurship (including winning the SPIE Startup Challenge), and mentors startups through several accelerator initiatives, including the German Accelerator program in Silicon Valley. He currently lives in Vienna, Austria with his family.