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MicroVision

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MicroVision
Information
Industry Laser beam scanning, lidar
Founded May 1993
Headquarters Redmond, Washington, United States
Notable Personnel Richard F. Rutkowski (CEO from September 1995), Sumit Sharma (CEO from February 2020 to September 2025), Glen DeVos (President and CEO since September 2025)
Products Nomad head-worn display, PicoP display engine, SHOWWX laser projector, MOVIA, MAVIN, IRIS and HALO lidar sensors
Website https://microvision.com


MicroVision (MicroVision, Inc., written Microvision in its early years) is an American technology company that commercialized laser beam scanning (LBS), a display method in which a MEMS mirror sweeps a modulated light beam to draw an image one point at a time. It was incorporated in Washington State in May 1993 to commercialize the virtual retinal display (VRD) developed at the University of Washington's Human Interface Technology Laboratory, and it trades on Nasdaq under the symbol MVIS.[1][2]

In VR and AR, MicroVision is known as a long-running developer and supplier of scanned-beam near-eye displays. Its first commercial product, the Nomad, was a see-through, monochrome, head-worn display sold from late 2001 for augmented reality work in vehicle repair, medicine and the military, including helmet-mounted units used by U.S. Army Stryker commanders in Iraq.[3][4] In 2017 it signed a contract to develop a new generation of MEMS mirrors, ASICs and firmware for a high-resolution LBS display that the customer, later named in its filings as Microsoft, went on to produce; the scanning components were found inside a Microsoft HoloLens 2-based headset in 2020.[5][6][7] Since 2020 the company has turned to lidar sensors and perception software for automotive, industrial and defense customers, and as of October 2026 it describes itself as a sensing and perception technology company rather than a display maker.[8][9]

Reviewed 15 October 2026. Checked every date, figure, name, quote and product claim against the cited SEC filings (1996 prospectus, 10-Ks for 2002-2003, 2005, 2009, 2017, 2019-2022 and 2025, and 2025-2026 8-Ks and press releases), IEEE Spectrum, GCN, Solid State Technology, TechCrunch and two KGOnTech posts. About review dates.

History

Founding and the virtual retinal display

The VRD was developed at the University of Washington's HIT Lab by a team working under Thomas A. Furness III. In 1993 Microvision obtained an exclusive, worldwide license to the VRD technology and its patents from the university, which kept limited rights for non-commercial research and teaching. Development continued at the HIT Lab under a research agreement paid for by the company.[1] Richard F. Rutkowski joined as chief operating officer in December 1994 and became chief executive officer in September 1995.[1]

Microvision's August 1996 initial public offering sold 2,250,000 units at US$8.00 per unit, with the shares and warrants approved for listing on the Nasdaq National Market. The prospectus described the company as a development-stage business, gave its offices as 2203 Airport Way South in Seattle, and reported that it had built a miniature mechanical resonant scanner and was working toward full-color VRDs and a larger exit pupil.[1] A 2004 IEEE Spectrum article by John R. Lewis, a Microvision engineer who had been the company's director of advanced research, traced the scanned-beam approach back to the U.S. Air Force's Super Cockpit program of the 1980s, in which a Furness-led team built wide-field helmet-mounted displays for fighter pilots.[10]

Nomad and early products (2001-2008)

Microvision began production of the Nomad, its first commercial product, in December 2001. The company marketed the monochrome, monocular display for "augmented vision and augmented reality applications" to aerospace, defense, industrial and medical customers. It delivered 55 Nomad units in 2002, the same year it introduced its second product, the Flic hand-held laser bar code scanner.[3] The Nomad display was certified as a Class 1 (eye-safe) laser product.[11]

In 2003 Microvision recorded US$855,000 in revenue from the sale of 133 Nomads. That year it also reincorporated in Delaware.[8][11] In July 2003 American Honda Motor Co. signed a non-binding letter of intent to buy 3,800 next-generation Nomads, and that October Honda showed the system to dealers at two California dealer shows under the name i-Tech Expert Technician System. In a field trial that April, Microvision and Honda measured an average 39 percent efficiency gain for technicians doing complex repairs.[11][12] The second-generation Nomad Expert Technician System followed in early 2004. Microvision said it was about 40 percent smaller and lighter than the original and cheaper to build; it paired the head-worn display with a wireless, wearable thin-client computer that put repair instructions in the technician's field of view during the repair.[11] In that version the computer, with a touch-pad control, was worn on the belt.[10] Lewis's Spectrum article gave its price as US$3,995 and said General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Volvo were running dealership trials.[10]

The military was the other main Nomad customer. In September 2003 Microvision contracted with the Army's Program Executive Office Soldier to supply 100 Nomads to the Stryker Brigade Combat Team.[11] GCN reported in November 2004 that the US$600,000 contract had put 100 helmet-mounted, see-through displays in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, with 125 more sent to the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division. The display let a commander standing in the hatch switch between the FBCB2 battlefield map, the gunner's display and the Driver's Vision Enhancer instead of dropping back inside the vehicle.[4] The company also held Army aviation contracts, including a US$2.2 million modification in April 2003 for an advanced helmet-mounted display and imaging system for the Virtual Cockpit Optimization Program.[11]

The Nomad did not sell as hoped. In its annual report for 2005 Microvision wrote that the product "has not gained the commercial acceptance the Company had planned," and that it had cut manufacturing, sales and marketing spending on it while it worked out business cases with a few customers. The same report described plans to evaluate full-color eyewear in three forms: a glanceable display, a see-through display and a fully occluded immersive display for gaming and simulation.[13]

PicoP and pico projectors (2009-2016)

The company's focus moved to PicoP, a display engine that combines a two-dimensional MEMS scanner with laser light sources, electronics and optics. Microvision said the projected image was always in focus. In September 2009 Microvision launched the first PicoP-based accessory projector, the SHOWWX, with three initial partners in Asia-Pacific and Europe, and extended distribution to the United States in March 2010. The battery-powered SHOWWX projected a full-color WVGA (848 x 480) image and was a Class 2 laser product. The same filing described PicoP-based automotive head-up display prototypes built with Tier 1 suppliers and a proposed full-color, see-through near-eye wearable display built on PicoP.[14]

Reviewing the follow-up ShowWX+ in December 2010, TechCrunch listed a US$450 MSRP and 15 lumens of output. Devin Coldewey wrote that it was "hard to beat the ShowWX on portability and convenience," while on brightness and image quality it fell short of competing projectors.[15] In March 2015 Sony took a non-exclusive license to make and sell scanning engines using PicoP technology, paying an US$8.0 million upfront fee plus a per-unit royalty, and Sony accounted for 98 percent of MicroVision's revenue in 2015 and 91 percent in 2016.[5]

Microsoft contract and HoloLens 2 (2017-2021)

In April 2017 MicroVision signed a contract with a "major technology company" to develop an LBS display system. Under it, MicroVision would build a new generation of MEMS, ASICs and firmware for a high-resolution LBS product that the customer planned to produce, for up to US$24.0 million: US$14.0 million in development fees and a US$10.0 million upfront payment that would be applied as a discount to later component purchases if the customer chose to build the product with MicroVision display components.[5] The development fees were later raised by US$1.1 million for added work, and by the end of 2019 MicroVision had received all of them.[16]

The company's 2021 annual report named the customer as Microsoft. From the third quarter of 2019 through February 2020 MicroVision sold components for "a high-definition display system that we developed for Microsoft"; because volumes and profit were low, it transferred production to Microsoft in March 2020 and took a per-unit royalty instead. The report also said its technology "can be found in a Microsoft heads up display product," and that the royalties were not significant.[6] The filings do not name the product. Microsoft's HoloLens 2 uses a laser scanning engine whose light is shaped by mirrors and fed into a waveguide.[17] In May 2020 a MicroVision shareholder took apart a Trimble XR10, an industrial headset built around HoloLens 2, and found the Microvision name, logo and MVIS stock symbol on the scanning mirror parts. Display analyst Karl Guttag wrote that it had been widely known for more than a year that HoloLens 2 used technology licensed from MicroVision, but that there had been no absolute public proof before the teardown.[7]

MicroVision's other display work in this period included a 1440i MEMS module meant for AR headsets, an interactive projection module for smart speakers that turned a tabletop into a touch surface, and a small consumer lidar sensor for smart homes.[6] It could not find customers to launch these products, and from February 2020 it explored strategic alternatives, including a possible sale or merger of the company.[18] Sumit Sharma, who had been head of manufacturing operations for Google's Project Glass (Google Glass) from 2011 to 2013, became chief executive in February 2020 after serving as chief operating officer from June 2018.[16] By its 2021 annual report the company said its development work was "solely focused" on its automotive ADAS solution.[6]

Lidar company (2022-present)

On 31 January 2023 MicroVision's German subsidiary bought assets of Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH, a Germany-based lidar hardware and software maker founded in 1998, for EUR 15,000,000 (about US$16.1 million).[19][8] In 2024 it cut its workforce by 41 percent to concentrate on perception software and its MAVIN and MOVIA sensors.[8]

Glen DeVos, the company's chief technology officer, succeeded Sharma as president and CEO on 30 September 2025.[20] In January 2026 MicroVision completed the purchase of assets from Scantinel Photonics GmbH, a German developer of 1550 nm frequency-modulated continuous-wave lidar-on-chip technology.[8] On 3 February 2026 it paid US$33,000,000 in cash for Luminar Technologies' lidar sensor business, including the IRIS and HALO sensors, after winning a court-supervised bankruptcy auction.[21][22]

On 27 February 2026 the company committed to a plan to move its Redmond, Washington engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and quality work to a new facility in Orlando, Florida, cutting about 20 percent of its global workforce; it had about 190 employees at the end of 2025.[8] After shareholders authorized a reverse stock split at the July 2026 annual meeting, the board set a 1-for-15 ratio effective 1 August 2026, which the company said was meant to keep its listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market.[2] In October 2026 MicroVision said the move to a consolidated U.S. manufacturing operation in Orlando was largely complete, reaffirmed 2026 revenue guidance of US$10 million to US$15 million, and said its portfolio included the IRIS, HALO, MOVIA S, MOVIA L, MOVIA Air and MOVIA Air Plus sensors, along with photonics work through Scantinel and its MicroVision Semiconductor Inc. unit, aimed at industrial, security and defense, robotics and infrastructure markets.[9]

Products

Product Year Type Notes
Nomad 2001 Head-worn see-through display Monochrome, monocular; first commercial product; production began December 2001[3]
Flic 2002 Hand-held bar code scanner Second commercial product, introduced September 2002[3]
Nomad Expert Technician System 2004 Wearable computer with head-worn display Second-generation Nomad with a monochrome red, see-through display, for vehicle repair and military use; about 40 percent smaller than the first version[11]
SHOWWX 2009 Accessory laser pico projector First PicoP-based product; WVGA (848 x 480); US distribution from March 2010[14]
PicoP scanning engine (licensed) 2015 Display engine license Non-exclusive license to Sony to make and sell scanning engines[5]
LBS display components for Microsoft 2019 MEMS, ASIC and firmware components Sold to Microsoft from Q3 2019 to February 2020, then produced by Microsoft under royalty[6]
MOVIA, MAVIN 2020s Lidar sensors MOVIA is a flash-based short- to mid-range sensor; MAVIN is a MEMS-based 905 nm long-range sensor[8]
IRIS, HALO 2026 1550 nm lidar sensors Acquired with Luminar's lidar business in February 2026[8]

XR work

MicroVision's XR work grew out of the scanned-beam display line that began with the virtual retinal display. Lewis's 2004 description divides a scanned-beam display into four parts: electronics, light sources, a scanner and optics. A MEMS mirror 1.5 mm in diameter sweeps the beam across the eye in rows, much as a cathode-ray tube draws its picture, and for head-worn use an exit pupil expander widens the beam so that it still reaches the eye as the eye moves.[10] The Nomad was an optical see-through head-mounted display sold for industrial, medical and military augmented reality, and its Stryker version was fielded as a helmet-mounted display.[11][4]

The company's later AR role was as a component supplier rather than a headset maker. The 2017 to 2020 development and supply program with Microsoft produced the MEMS scanning parts that teardowns later found in HoloLens 2 hardware, and MicroVision also promoted its 1440i MEMS module for AR headsets.[6][7] By 2021 its development work had moved entirely to lidar, and its 2025 annual report refers to its AR microdisplay engines as work from "the recent past."[6][8] The wider technology and its other uses in near-eye displays are covered in the laser beam scanning article.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Microvision, Inc. prospectus (Form 424B4)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Microvision, Inc.. 1996-08-28. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/0000912057-96-019040.txt. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "MicroVision Announces Reverse Split of Common Stock to Support Continued Nasdaq Listing and Long-Term Growth Strategy". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1). MicroVision, Inc.. 2026-07-22. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000149315226034194/ex99-1.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Microvision, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2002". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Microvision, Inc.. 2003-03-26. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000110465903005013/j8564_10k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Dawn S. Onley (2004-11-03). "Nomad system is a commander hit in Iraq". GCN (Route Fifty). https://www.route-fifty.com/digital-government/2004/11/nomad-system-is-a-commander-hit-in-iraq/303802/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "MicroVision, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2017". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. MicroVision, Inc.. 2018-02-23. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000113626118000055/body10k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 "MicroVision, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2021". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. MicroVision, Inc.. 2022-03-01. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000113626122000126/form10-k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Karl Guttag (2020-05-18). "Teardown Shows Microvision Inside Hololens 2". KGOnTech. https://kguttag.com/2020/05/18/teardown-shows-microvision-inside-hololens-2/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 "MicroVision, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2025". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. MicroVision, Inc.. 2026-03-04. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000149315226008898/form10-k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "MicroVision Reaffirms 2026 Revenue Outlook, Outlines Commercial Growth, and Path to Profitability". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1). MicroVision, Inc.. 2026-10-07. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000149315226046140/ex99-1.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 John R. Lewis (2004-05-03). "In the Eye of the Beholder". IEEE Spectrum. https://spectrum.ieee.org/in-the-eye-of-the-beholder. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 "Microvision, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2003". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Microvision, Inc.. 2004-03-15. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000104746904008005/a2130378z10-k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  12. ↑ "Honda unveils Microvision display at dealer shows". Solid State Technology (Semiconductor Digest). 2003-10-09. https://sst.semiconductor-digest.com/?p=47567. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  13. ↑ "Microvision, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2005". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Microvision, Inc.. 2006-03-16. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000006577006000009/body10k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Microvision, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2009". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Microvision, Inc.. 2010-03-10. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000006577010000002/body10k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  15. ↑ Devin Coldewey (2010-12-21). "Review: Microvision ShowWX+ Pico Projector". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2010/12/21/review-microvision-showwx-pico-projector/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "MicroVision, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2019". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. MicroVision, Inc.. 2020-03-12. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000113626120000079/body10k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  17. ↑ Karl Guttag (2020-07-17). "Hololens 2 Display Evaluation (Part 4: LBS Optics)". KGOnTech. https://kguttag.com/2020/07/17/hololens-2-display-evaluation-part-4-lbs-optics/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  18. ↑ "MicroVision, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2020". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. MicroVision, Inc.. 2021-03-15. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000113626121000040/body10k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  19. ↑ "MicroVision, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2022". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. MicroVision, Inc.. 2023-03-02. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000119312523056723/d461483d10k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  20. ↑ "MicroVision, Inc. Current Report (Form 8-K): Chief Executive Officer Transition". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. MicroVision, Inc.. 2025-09-04. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000149315225012611/form8-k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  21. ↑ "MicroVision, Inc. Current Report (Form 8-K): Completion of Acquisition of Assets". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. MicroVision, Inc.. 2026-02-04. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000149315226004952/form8-k.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  22. ↑ "MicroVision Announces Agreement to Acquire Luminar Assets to Accelerate Commercial Strategy and Expand Product Portfolio". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1). MicroVision, Inc.. 2026-01-27. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/65770/000149315226004505/ex99-1.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
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