Light Polymers

Light Polymers, founded in 2013 by Marc McConnaughey, operates as a nanochemistry company with a focus on lyotropic liquid crystals. The company's business model involves synthesizing and formulating its proprietary chemistry at its R&D facility in Santa Clara, CA, with application engineering and manufacturing in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. Light Polymers then supplies these materials and its process expertise to customers, enabling them to directly coat components in-house, which simplifies the supply chain and lowers costs. The company has secured approximately $29.3 million in funding over several rounds, including a notable Series A of $24.3 million in March 2017 and a Series B in September of the same year.

A significant milestone was achieved in 2019 with the invention of a new "polymer polarizer" material, enhancing the optical performance of its coatable technology to compete with traditional polarizers. This direct-coat polarizer eliminates the need for non-value layers like carrier films and adhesives. A subsequent development is the Area Selective Polarizer (ASP) coating technology, which allows for precision patterning at the pixel level. This technology addresses a key issue in displays where traditional polarizers can cause a brightness loss of over 50%; ASP technology aims to reduce ambient light reflection without sacrificing brightness.

The company's products target several markets, including displays, optics, and photonics. Applications range from LCD and OLED flat panel displays to LED lighting and mixed reality (MR) headsets. For MR headsets, the company's coatable solution can be applied directly to curved lenses, potentially reducing thickness and production costs. In the automotive sector, their materials offer superior environmental stability for displays that are exposed to high humidity and temperatures. Light Polymers has also developed products for healthy lighting, such as task lights and grow lights, which utilize their Crystallin films to filter unhealthy light while maintaining high color rendering.

Keywords: nanochemistry, lyotropic liquid crystals, direct-coat polarizer, polymer polarizer, Area Selective Polarizer, display technology, optical films, flexible displays, OLED components, LED lighting, automotive displays, mixed reality optics, coatable polarizers, materials science, chemical synthesis, circular polarizer, light management, display manufacturing, photonics, specialty chemicals