ST ANDREWS, Scotland, UK – 15 November, 2022 - Ceres Holographics, an innovative developer of thin-film Holographic Optical Elements (HOEs) for next-generation transparent display (TD) solutions, today announced the successful completion of its View Ahead project, a development effort funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 innovation programme. The company received a positive final review of the project by the progamme administrators, who noted, “The project has delivered exceptional results with significant immediate or potential impact...”
The Horizon 2020 grant was awarded to Ceres in 2019 to scale its tested and proven precision mastering and replication technology to meet the needs of automotive supply chain partners and customers. Ceres specializes in the design, mastering and replication of thin-film HOEs that enable new display systems for viewing vehicle navigation, safety and infotainment information on transparent glass surfaces (e.g. windscreens). Ceres technology is in demand from automotive OEMs as it delivers optical power into the windshield, enabling new display solutions and shrinking the projector package size – a key challenge for automotive OEMs.
The Ceres project was featured in CORDIS (The Community Research and Development Information Service, the European Commission's primary source of results from the projects funded by the EU's framework programmes for research and innovation.
Horizon 2020 grant used to ramp up production capability
Over the past two+ years the company has ramped up its capacity to perform the critical digital mastering and replication of the film used to enable the crisp, clear display of information that can viewed safely and conveniently on a vehicle’s windscreen or other glass surface. The grant has resulted in the opening of a state-of-the-art 8,000-foot production facility in Livingston, Scotland where a custom developed roll-to-roll printing machine is now on-line to implement the scaling of the company’s innovative technology. The system leverages Ceres’ patented HoloFlekt® innovation, a light-guiding film solution that allows precision-engineered, thin-film HOEs to be replicated in volume and then embedded in glass cost-effectively.
The Horizon 2020 report noted that, “…such technological innovation is likely to become the next generation of information display in cars…” and noting that, “…the technology can be game changing and the commercial potential and expected impact can quantitively help with the European competitiveness…and that such product has an obvious interest from OEMs in the race to innovate and become the first to offer drivers these features as standard.”
Horizon 2020 is one of the world’s most prestigious and competitive grant programs making nearly €80 billion of funding available over seven years (2014 to 2020) to support market-creating innovations that demonstrate high-growth potential. This Ceres project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 858172.
“The support of the Horizon2020 programme has been instrumental in allowing us to prove our technological approach with key customers and ramp up our production capabilities. This brings us closer to wider spread commercialization of our transparent display solutions with leading OEMs in automotive, and also in other select mobility/transport application areas in agricultural and construction equipment, last-mile delivery vehicles and public transportation systems,” said Andy Travers, Chief Executive Officer of Ceres Holographics.
Ceres HOE technology has been successfully demonstrated in OEM customers prototype cars with HOEs inside full size windscreens. Ceres also produces custom HOEs for new display applications that enable projecting information on side and rear windows of cars. Ceres is currently engaged in commercial development programs with several global automotive OEMs and supporting Tier One suppliers.
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