The age of smart light: How Digital Photonics unlocks a new wave of innovation
Harnessing the power of digital light, ams OSRAM products and know-how are transforming mobility, communications, sensing and more.
After Thomas Edison first commercialized the light bulb, electrically powered illumination transformed the lives of millions of ordinary people. It was perhaps the first mass-market revolution in photonics technology.
Digital Photonics at a glance
Digital Photonics is at the core of ams OSRAM's strategy, describing the combination of pixelated light emitters and sensors with digital interfaces turning them into intelligent systems.
Growth drivers
- Artificial Intelligence
- AI Data Center Connectivity
- Smart Mobility
- AR/VR and Smart Glasses
- Digital Health
- Industrial Automation
I believe that we are today in the early stages of another photonics revolution, not only in the field of illumination, but also in other fast-growing domains: in communications, sensing, quantum computing, and AI. The technology for controlling, processing, and interpreting light signals is the foundation for exciting applications of the future, offering the promise of far-reaching changes in mobility, healthcare, digital connectivity, security, and industrial automation. Breakthroughs in technology such as microLEDs, enabling the creation of chip-scale arrays of pixelated emitters and receivers, are finding valuable new uses in applications for smart devices, robotics, data communications and more.
In this new revolution, digitally controllable and readable light is being translated into scalable, real-world solutions, enabled by system-level understanding and deep application expertise from across multiple industries.
We call this new approach to the science of light “Digital Photonics”, and it is the domain in which ams OSRAM is proud to be the pioneer.
Digital Photonics, as we understand it, is transforming the role of light - from pure illumination to an intelligent, versatile technology that connects, senses and interacts.
By combining advanced pixelated emitters, optical sensors, and digital interfaces, light becomes the foundation of a new generation of smart, programmable systems.
Driven by megatrends, such as AI, AR/VR or robotics, this transformation is opening entirely new possibilities – faster, more efficient and more intuitive.
A key enabling technology
Compared to conventional electronics systems, which rely on the flow of electrons, photonics systems can be faster, more energy-efficient, more resistant to interference, and more precise. These are inherent advantages based on the physics of light. Now, with the development of new types of micro-emitters and sensors, and amid a surge in demand for AI infrastructure, the advantages of light-based technologies are coming to the fore: according to industry analyst Yole Group, the global market for photonics is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12% between 2025 and 2030, from $46bn to $81bn.
In Europe, photonics is regarded as so important that it has been ranked by the European Union as a ‘key enabling technology’, because it:
- Supports strategic changes in the region in areas such as digitalization, energy, healthcare and security,
- Underpins the region’s drive to achieve technological sovereignty,
- Provides a hardware foundation for crucial technologies including AI, quantum communication, and advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
This is why I am confident – and incredibly excited – about ams OSRAM’s strategic pivot towards Digital Photonics. It draws on the complementary capabilities of the two companies which joined in 2020: Austria’s ams, a renowned manufacturer of intelligent sensor ICs, and Germany-based OSRAM, a world leader in many segments of the LED market including automotive LEDs.
As ams OSRAM, we have been hard at work behind the scenes marrying the digital semiconductor and light emitter capabilities of the two former companies to create a single unified enterprise with one mission: to lead the world in the new domain of digital photonics, a mission which is being realized thanks to the company’s new strategic focus on optical technologies initiated in late 2025.
Digital Photonics in the real world
EVIYOS™ is the breakthrough that brings Digital Photonics to life, transforming light into a controllable, data-driven platform for next-generation applications. This platform for highly pixelated forward lighting in vehicles is the first real-world application of extraordinary microLED technology developed by ams OSRAM. When used in car headlamps, the EVIYOS technology provides 25.600 individually controllable points of light, enabling car makers to provide smart headlamps which light up the road at night far better than conventional headlamps while avoiding the risk of dazzling oncoming traffic or pedestrians.
It’s a remarkable, award-winning technology breakthrough which makes cars safer for all road users – and it’s enabled by an ams OSRAM product which combines microLEDs and control electronics in a single miniature package – Digital Photonics in action.
Automotive headlamps are just the first of many applications for our microLED array technology. A mind-blowing use for miniaturized, digitalized light is in the consumer domain. Soon, people who use the next generation of smart glasses could be living in an augmented reality world, viewing a high-resolution display embedded in the lenses of the smart glasses which shows, for instance, real-time translation of speech in a foreign language, or arrow signs to enable navigation in a foreign city without ever looking at a map. This display can consist of an ams OSRAM projection engine with micro emitters.
It’s incredible to think that the micro emitters themselves and the controller chip which switches the right amount of power at the right time to each of the thousands micro emitters are so small and lightweight that they can be embedded nearly invisibly in smart glasses. But this is exactly the future which Digital Photonics from ams OSRAM enables.
Another highly promising application field is AI data centers.
Hyperscaler data centers form the backbone of modern AI infrastructure, interconnecting thousands of high-performance processors at unprecedented speeds. Yet as bandwidth demands accelerate, traditional copper-based “pluggable” technologies are reaching their limits - while power consumption and costs are rising in parallel.
Digital Photonics technology offers a compelling solution to this challenge by providing a more reliable and easier-to-integrate approach. We have demonstrated how an array of hundreds of low-power microLEDs operating in parallel can outperform single high-power laser transmitters - delivering higher data rates at substantially less power consumption.
The so-called “wide & slow” optical data link technology stack is still at an early stage of development - but we are shaping it from the front, alongside our partners. Its success could unlock considerable commercial value and deliver a step change in the efficiency of AI data centers.
Technology for a smarter, healthier world
Digital Photonics is such a rewarding field for us to be in because it fits hand-in-glove with so many of the long-term trends changing our world.
One of those is digital, personalized healthcare. In health and fitness devices, our sensors combine optical measurements of blood flow with digital processing to produce remarkably accurate tracking of heart rate, blood pressure and other vital signs.
Our technology is so advanced already that it enables medical-grade performance in the latest wearable devices for the first time, opening up the potential for new diagnostic practices based on continuous, real-world monitoring of a patient’s vital signs – often more revealing than sporadic measurements taken in a clinical setting.
This level of performance is also evident in smartphones. Have you ever wondered how your phone’s camera can take such high-quality photographs? One reason is advanced light sensing, which allows the camera to ‘see’ the lighting conditions and adjust the camera’s operation for the best picture quality. It is Digital Photonics which underlies this capability, implemented in multiple generations of our ambient light sensor and color sensor products.
The latest evolution of this sensing capability is a new type of spectral sensor which takes this capability one step further: slicing the visible light spectrum to give more precise light measurements than conventional sensors can. Just like a professional photographer would with equipment costing hundreds of dollars, our spectral sensor lets the camera compute which kind of light source the phone is under, whether sunlight or a type of artificial lighting. The result is perfectly adjusted color in photographs, reproducing the world as the user sees it.
Digital Photonics is such a foundational technology that, if I am asked about how it could be used, the honest answer is that I do not have all the answers. Together with our customers, new ideas and solutions are constantly emerging – and we are only beginning to tap into the full potential of what smart sensors and emitters can enable.
A good example of this is our direct time-of-flight (dToF) ranging sensors: industrial customers need robots and drones to ‘see’ their surroundings, so that they can move around spaces full of people without any risk to their safety. The combination of optical and digital technologies provides the precise, high-speed ranging measurements required to keep an autonomous robot safely on track.
This technology is helping industrial customers to accelerate the pace of automation inside factories and warehouses, relieving workforces of the burden of repetitive or mechanical work and allowing redeployment to more valuable functions, while enabling operators to improve efficiency, safety, and reliability.
A platform to shape the future of Digital Photonics
These innovative implementations of Digital Photonics all draw on a unique set of capabilities and assets in the ams OSRAM business. We are already a photonics powerhouse, with the market’s broadest portfolio of advanced light emitters, optical sensors, and the associated drivers and control ICs. Now, we are consistently aligning our strategy and organizational setup around Digital Photonics, recognizing it as a core driver of future growth. By combining light, sensing, and data, the company is moving beyond traditional illumination and sensing into new application domains. The integration across the entire system architecture enables differentiated solutions with added value.
The development and manufacturing of these solutions depend on a broad set of proprietary technologies, including epitaxy, advanced packaging, phosphors, filters, through-silicon vias, microLEDs, and CMOS fabrication of analog and mixed-signal ICs. And as a Europe-based company with global manufacturing and service capabilities, we can ease customers’ concerns about the volatility of today’s semiconductor supply chains.
In fact, I am excited that ams OSRAM is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the rising tide of demand for Digital Photonics. The timing for our technology portfolio is perfect. Megatrends such as automated driving, AI, AR/VR, smart health, robotics, and data centers demand new ways of sensing data, transmitting it, and using energy more efficiently. Digital Photonics – powered by the optical expertise and passion of our teams – enables exactly that, opening up attractive growth opportunities. This is an inspiring prospect which is consistent with our company slogan: “Sense the power of light”.