Du Chuang/Shenzhen Business Daily reporter Tu Jingyu

We all know how difficult it is to become the world's number one in the most cutting-edge technology field. And the team of Shengyang Optics has been the world's number one in the field of optics more than once. Behind each "number one" is years of difficult exploration in unmanned areas.

Shengyang Optics is an award-winning enterprise in the final of the Innovation Nanshan 2020 "Entrepreneurship Star" competition, and also the world's first technology company focused on ultra short focus optics. Its global headquarters are located in Shenzhen.

Breaking the monopoly in the field of new display key components

It is understood that Dr. Li Wenzong, the founder of Shengyang Optics, is a globally renowned optical design expert. He has previously served as the person in charge of the five-year development plan for projection technology at the Taiwan Institute of Technology and the vice president of Hisense Laser Television Technology. The "Five Year Plan for Projection Technology" of Taiwan Institute of Technology in 1998 established a sound technological foundation for the entire generation of projection industry clusters in Taiwan. Over the past 20 years, he has led a team to invent nearly ten globally leading technological products, including the world's first DLP micro projector and the world's first 4K laser TV.

"In the field of ultra short focus optics, there is a giant that has always overshadowed all practitioners, and that is Ricoh Japan. In 2012, Ricoh launched a new patented technology called 'built-in separated reflection ultra short focus optics', which monopolized the entire ultra short focus market within three years. Currently, more than 60% of the lenses used in ultra short focus projection use Ricoh patented technology," said Li Wenzong.

Therefore, when he left Hisense in 2016, he had a goal: to break Ricoh's monopoly from the bottom patent technology. For over three years, there have been constant failures and improvements. Until 2019, the validation of the entire set of patented technologies was finally completed. It is reported that the invention patent technology of Shengyang Optics, the "reverse axis telecentric ultra short focus optical architecture," has achieved smaller volume, higher yield, and lower price in its mass-produced products, while maintaining the same quality as Japanese Ricoh ultra short focus lenses.

"We can establish a 100% domestically produced supply chain in the field of new displays as a key component, completely replacing imports. This will also enable all global projection and laser television companies to no longer worry about their ultra short focus lens, a key component, being monopolized by one company."

New displays are the future of displays

"Starting from this year, all ultra short focus projection companies around the world have a second choice in lenses. Ultra short focus optical technology is not only used in the projection field, such as the new Mercedes Benz S series launched in September 2020, which released standard AR-HUD videos, shocking the global automotive industry. Behind this is a directional change in basic optical technology." Li Wenzong said, "The goal of all giants is to develop new display devices that are lighter, smaller, and more convenient. Similar to previous televisions, mobile phones have experienced lighter and thinner capabilities. Currently, many well-known companies are in contact with us, hoping to test the lenses as soon as possible."

Li Wenzong believes that new displays are the future of display. In addition to hard screens such as OLED and mircoLED, optical projection solutions will be the most important direction, and ultra short focus optics will be the development trend. On the basis of an 18 fold growth in the projection market in the past decade, over 13% of the global projection market with over 10 million units per year is already ultra short focus. And more fields, not only VR/AR, HUD, including 5GIOT devices, desktop displays, etc., are beginning to try to use ultra short focus optics to complete their industrial upgrading.

It is reported that the ultra short focus optical patented technology of Shengyang Optics can be applied in various new display devices such as projection, XR, HUD, IoT, etc. As a technology innovator in the field of ultra short focus optics, Li Wenzong hopes to gain more than 30% market share in sub sectors of the global ultra short focus lens market of $1.5 billion in 2023.

As a company that emerged from the final of the Innovation Nanshan 2020 "Entrepreneurship Star" Competition, Li Wenzong has many emotions: "The" Entrepreneurship Star "Competition has always been the most well-known entrepreneurship competition in the world, with 1530 projects registered globally this year, and the competition is very fierce.".

We are able to stand out not only because we have brought new patented technologies for the underlying key components of an industry to the stage of commercial mass production, but also because the governments of Shenzhen and Nanshan districts have provided us with great support for these entrepreneurial projects He stated that these supports have strengthened Shengyang Optics' determination to establish its global headquarters in Shenzhen.