Torrance, CA, January 17, 2024 — Luminit LLC, (“Company”) a world-leading manufacturer of Holographic Light Shaping Diffusers® (LSD®), announced today that Jonathan Waldern, Ph.D., has joined the Company as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In this role, he will oversee the company’s global technology and engineering to support new product introductions. In addition to those priorities, Waldern will also lead the planning, management, delivery, and transformation of the company’s technology, in both strategic partner and licensed manufacturing initiatives.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Waldern to our team as we increasingly shift our focus from R&D to commercialization and increased revenue growth,” said Dr. Engin Arik, Chairman, President & CEO of Luminit. “His wide experience in photonics, including, AR/VR/MR, ‘Smart Glass’ applications, manufacturing and strategic partner development, will lead to multiple product introductions, including Automotive Head-Up Displays.”
Dr. Waldern brings over 20 years of developing and commercializing Holographic, Lithographic and Metamaterial-based products for both illumination and display applications. With over 170 patents to date, he has also pioneered the development of novel thin film photopolymer materials and roll-to-roll (R2R) Manufacturing processes, enabling a wide variety of breakthrough products. Using a novel metamaterial R2R manufacturing line his team developed, Dr. Waldern recently launched a CES 2023 award-winning completely transparent Microwave Oven window and a range of Smart Glass (SG) embedding invisible thin films for de-fogging, 5G antennas and electrochromic dimming – critical for next-generation Auto, Aero, Architecture and eyewear applications including Augmented Reality (AR).
“I was attracted by Luminit’s holographic R2R production platform, along with their growing revenue,” said Dr. Waldern. “In 2024, I believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered applications will transform AR Head-Up Display (HUD) and eyeglass demand. Using my experience combining Holographic and Metamaterial films, I can see many high-value growth and differentiated product opportunities, which can increase revenue in the near term. As CTO I plan to champion collaborative innovation and build manufacturing capacity with both existing and new corporate customers.”
Waldern joined Luminit from MetaMaterials Inc. where he served as CTO from 2020-2023. His organization pioneered metamaterials technology to accelerate the company’s significant growth goals across a diverse portfolio of R2R film-based products from plasmonic security holograms to automotive heaters, EMI shielding and battery insulators. The company successfully listed on NASDAQ in May 2021. Previously, he founded DigiLens Inc., a leader in holographic waveguides used for AR displays including HUD’s. As CTO, he led the technical development of their optical platform and photopolymer technology using a unique, low-cost contact-copy manufacturing process. DigiLens strategic investors include Samsung, Mitsubishi Chemical, Universal Display Corporation, Niantic, Sony, Dolby and Continental AG. He led the development of the world’s first commercial waveguide HUD for aerospace (Collins Aerospace) and Wide Field-of-View automotive HUD (Continental) and eyeglass-thin wearable AR displays (DigiLens).
Luminit, is a high technology company with a broad patent portfolio. Today, Luminit’s production Light Shaping Diffusers® are used in Automotive, Aerospace and Architectural lighting applications and available directly or through a network of domestic and international distributors. Other specialist custom solutions include precision light management for bio-medical and semiconductor metrology products.