Semiconductor Industry Veteran Takes the Helm as Company’s Disruptive, Scalable Holographic eXtended Reality Chip Technology Gains Traction in AR/VR/XR Applications
San Jose, November, 2022 – Swave Photonics, an innovator in Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) technology to bring the metaverse to life, today announced the appointment of Mike Noonen as CEO. Noonen joins Swave to expand the investment and commercialization of immersive 3D, gigapixel holographic projection chips for a wide range of emerging AR/VR and metaverse applications benefiting from truly realistic 3D experiences.
Noonen takes the helm from Theodore Marescaux who guided the company through its initial technology development, customer engagement and funding stages. He joins the leadership team that includes Swave’s founder and chief product officer Theodore Marescaux, founder and COO Dmitri Choutov, and chairman of the board of directors, Pieter Vorenkamp.
Based on more than seven years of technology development at imec, Swave has pioneered a next-generation approach to 3D holography, Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) technology, which delivers lifelike, high-resolution 3D images that are viewable with the naked eye, with no compromises. Powered by diffractive photonics with <250nm pixel pitch, HXR chips enable 1000x better pixel resolution with billions of tiny, densely packed pixels to enable true realistic 20/20 vision without requiring viewers to wear smart AR/VR headsets or prescription glasses.
“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 imec.xpand and early investor in Swave. “We look forward to working with Mike Noonen as he leads Swave in its next phase of growth and commercial success. We also are grateful to Theodore Marescaux for his leadership in bringing Swave to this point.”
“I am thrilled and honored to join the Swave team as our HXR technology and products will transform the massive metaverse market by enabling immersive, ultra-high resolution, lifelike, true holographic displays,” said Mike Noonen. “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.
“Mike’s executive management and broad operational experience are critical assets as we accelerate investments, partnerships, product development and commercialization of our next-generation HXR technology,” said Theodore Marescaux, chief product officer at Swave. “Swave is well-positioned to be a disruptive force in today’s dynamic, fast-moving metaverse landscape. Aligning our leadership team and resources is critical to our continued growth and market success. We look forward to working with Mike as we expand the team, develop our initial markets and deliver the first samples of our HXR solution in the coming year.”
About Mike Noonen
Mike Noonen has 30 years of experience leading technology businesses resulting in two IPOs and multiple acquisitions. Most recently Noonen was CEO of MixComm, which was acquired by Sivers Semiconductors earlier this year. He is currently a board director with SES.ai (NYSE:SES) and SK Growth Opportunities Corporation (NASDAQ: SKGR). Noonen was the Chairman and co-founder of Silicon Catalyst, the world’s first semiconductor incubator. He also has held executive roles at GlobalFoundries, NXP Semiconductors, National Semiconductor, Cisco Systems and 8×8. He previously served on the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) board of directors. He holds a BSEE from Colorado State University and multiple patents in the areas of Internet telephony and video communications.
About Swave HXR Technology
Swave’s Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) technology is the Holy Grail of the metaverse, delivering lifelike, high-resolution 3D images indistinguishable from reality. Swave’s HXR technology projects lifelike holographic images that eliminate today’s AR/VR/XR challenges of focal depth and eye tracking, so viewers can easily focus on nearby and faraway objects. Most importantly, the HXR chips are manufactured using standard CMOS technology, which enables cost-effective scaling.
Swave technology can also power holographic headsets that deliver immersive 3D AR/VR/XR experiences with stunning high resolution, perfect depth of focus and 180-degree to 360-degree viewing angles, all without the headaches experienced by users of conventional headsets. Applications powered by HXR gigapixel technology will be capable of passing the visual Turing test in which virtual reality is practically indistinguishable from real-world images that humans see with their own eyes.
Swave is expanding its management and engineering teams and hiring in key areas. Visit swave.io to learn more about career opportunities.
About Swave
Swave Photonics is a fabless semiconductor company that designs, and markets holographic chips based on proprietary diffractive photonics technology. Its mission is to bring the metaverse to life and enable display manufacturers and content creators to disrupt the visualization market with immersive, ultra-high-resolution, lifelike, true holographic displays. Swave envisions a world where holographic displays give everyone the power to visualize the impossible, collaborate and accomplish more. www.swave.io
