What’s the story?
XPANCEO and JBD have entered the next phase of their collaboration to build a custom micro-display for future AR-enabled smart contact lenses.
Why it matters
The work could move smart contact lenses closer to practical AR use by addressing display size, power consumption and optical comfort constraints.
The bigger picture
The partnership points to continued progress in AR contact lens development, where manufacturable micro-displays remain a key commercial hurdle.
July 7, 2026 – XPANCEO, a deep-tech company that develops smart contact lenses, has this week announced a continuation of its partnership with JBD, a developer of micro-LED technology, to co-develop a new micro-display designed specifically for direct integration into a smart contact lens. The project marks the second phase of their collaboration.
According to the companies, during the proof-of-concept stage they created a printed circuit board (PCB) with an integrated micro-display, connecting the screen to the lens processing unit. The teams also developed an optical system capable of forming a precise image that the human eye can comfortably focus on, despite being positioned extremely close to the surface of the eye. XPANCEO also demonstrated that such a system can be powered entirely by wireless means, removing the need for bulky internal components.
XPANCEO and JBD stated that they have defined the precise technical criteria required to make the micro-display suitable and comfortable for use in a contact lens. Furthermore, since such highly specialized form factors are rarely required by other industries, the companies stated that they are engineering a novel technological solution tailored to this application.
Conventional smart glasses can accommodate significantly larger components, but components in smart contact lenses must be kept at around the thickness of a human hair for comfort and wearability. XPANCEO stated that the resulting display is expected to measure no more than a fraction of a millimeter in diameter.
Addressing the challenge of brightness management
The companies stated that brightness management is critical for a micro-display positioned close to the eye, as light levels must be balanced for ocular safety while staying strong enough to see clearly. However, since images are projected directly onto the retina, an optimal balance can be achieved at lower brightness than AR wearables such as smart glasses, which in turn lowers power consumption.
This ultra-low-power operation requires a different architectural approach at the backplane level (the electronic circuitry driving the pixels), since conventional backplanes support the high currents needed for bright LEDs, whereas a contact lens backplane must be optimized for low current operation. As a result, XPANCEO and JBD stated they are co-developing a specialized micro-display architecture to minimize power loss.
XPANCEO noted that while several companies have demonstrated early-stage prototypes of micro-displays for smart contact lenses, the technology has yet to reach true commercial product readiness. The companies stated that their partnership is therefore focused on scalability and manufacturability, with an aim of establishing “the first mass-market production run of specialized contact lens micro-displays.”
For more information on XPANCEO and its smart contact lens technology built for the AI era, please visit the company’s website.
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix, where he has spent years immersed in the XR ecosystem, tracking its evolution from early prototypes to the technologies shaping the future of human experience. While primarily covering the latest AR and VR news, his interests extend to the wider world of human augmentation, from AI and robotics to haptics, wearables, and brain–computer interfaces.