Noonen takes CEO post at holography startup Swave Photonics
Industry veteran Mike Noonen has been appointed CEO of holographic projection IC startup Swave Photonics NV (Leuven, Belgium).
Swave Photonics is a fabless chip company spin-off from the IMEC research institute that designs and markets holographic chips based on proprietary diffractive photonics technology. It was founded in 2022.
Noonen was CEO of MixComm Inc., a millimeter wave RF fabless chip company, until its acquisition by Sivers Semiconductors AB in June 2022 (see Sivers Semiconductors in mmWave chip buy). Noonen was a co-founder of Silicon Catalyst, the world’s first semiconductor-oriented incubator organization. He has also held executive roles at GlobalFoundries, NXP Semiconductors, National Semiconductor, Cisco Systems and 8×8.
Noonen is joining Swave to expand the investment in and commercialization of gigapixel holographic projection chips for emerging AR/VR and metaverse applications. He joins a leadership team comprising Swave’s founder and chief product officer Theodore Marescaux, founder and COO Dmitri Choutov, and chairman of the board of directors, Pieter Vorenkamp.
No headset, glasses
Swave’s holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) technology delivers 3D images that are viewable with the naked eye and without requiring AR/VR headsets or special glasses. The technology eliminates challenges of focal depth and eye tracking, so viewers can focus on nearby and faraway objects. The technology is based on diffractive photonics with pixel pitch of less than 250nm and is manufactured using standard CMOS technology, which enables cost-effective scaling.
“Swave’s vision and innovative 3D holographic technology hold great promise for products that bring the metaverse to life and work,” said Peter Vanbekbergen, partner at venture capital firm imec.xpand and an early investor in Swave.
“HXR will impact and enhance the gaming, entertainment, training, medical, automotive, advertising and communications experience. I applaud Theo, Dmitri and the entire Swave team for establishing such a strong company foundation and developing cutting-edge photonics pixel technology that’s catching the industry’s attention.”
Related links and articles:
News articles:
IMEC spin-off to bring holograms to the metaverse
Sivers Semiconductors in mmWave chip buy
Photonic FPGA startup appoints former Xilinx exec as CEO
CEO interview: The joy of RFSOI with MixComm’s Mike Noonen
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