Smart contact lenses develop XPANCEO announced a partnership with Contamac, a specialist manufacturer of ophthalmic materials, to advance AR contact lenses and their manufacturing process.
The company says that this new collaboration focuses on making lenses suitable for longer, more comfortable wear while preserving optical quality and enabling scalable manufacturing.
XPANCEO further says that it has already addressed several of the core challenges behind smart contact lenses, including ultra-low-power displays, advanced optical systems, wireless power, and microbattery technology. The new partnership is focused on adapting Contamac’s ophthalmic materials and optimizing the contact lens manufacturing processes specifically for XPANCEO’s display and optical technologies. Both soft and rigid lens options are being explored using standard geometries to test different integration methods.
The collaboration follows XPANCEO’s work with JBD developing a custom microLED microdisplay for smart contact lenses. The teams have already demonstrated the core optical and electronic setup, including an integrated microdisplay connected to the lens processing unit, an optical system that allows the image to be focused comfortably despite its proximity to the eye, and wireless powering of the system. The current focus of the JBD partnership is on engineering the display for the extreme constraints of a contact lens while significantly reducing power consumption.
With the display itself already under development, the work with Contamac addresses the next step: integration and precise positioning of the components directly within the contact lens, thus bringing XPANCEO’s AR technology into the established ecosystem of ophthalmic materials and manufacturing while addressing critical requirements for longer wear, consistent optical performance, and scalable production.
In 2025 XPANCEO raised $250 million at a $1.35 billion valuation to fund its development.
