Innovation·Inquiry - Ryan from Yunzhan Optoelectronics: Optical Waveguide Technology Facilitates the Implementation of In-vehicle and AR Displays

What does an excellent enterprise look like, and what characteristics do successful outstanding individuals have? On their journey of struggle, what "pitfalls" need to be noted, and what is the most important change?

Chuang·Wen poses questions to some outstanding Huachuang alumni, investors, and industry experts, and also hopes to share their insights with you.

The protagonist of this issue is Ryan, the Chairman and CEO of Yunzhan Optoelectronics. Founded in 2024, Yunzhan Optoelectronics mainly engages in optical waveguides and PGU components, etc., to facilitate the implementation of new in-vehicle AR human-machine interaction terminals and smart wearable devices, and enhance the human-machine interaction experience. The company is committed to becoming a leading enterprise in the field of micro-nano optical applications.

Huachuang Capital led the angel round financing of Yunzhan Optoelectronics.

The "holographic map" in Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters is moving from the silver screen to the car windshield and people's eyes: when you drive a vehicle or wear AR glasses, all interactions are presented in front of your eyes in the form of AR display, making people feel like they are in a sci-fi world.

This is exactly what Ryan, the Chairman and CEO of Yunzhan Optoelectronics, is doing in his entrepreneurship - to bring AR into reality, and the core technological means to achieve this goal is the optical waveguide. This is a more advanced optical display technology than the traditional free-form surface reflection imaging.

HUD (Head-Up Display) was first applied in fighter jets. In 1988, General Motors adopted it for the first time, and then this technology was gradually used by more and more automobile manufacturers. However, due to reasons such as cost, it was only limited to high-end models. And AR glasses have always existed in sci-fi stories.

It was not until the rise of the new energy vehicle and intelligent driving wave that HUD technology began to be applied on a large scale and underwent technological iterations. According to data from Gasgoo, in the overall passenger car market, the standard installation volume of HUD reached 3.39 million vehicles in 2024, with a penetration rate of about 15%. The market scale of the Chinese passenger car HUD market will exceed 8.6 billion yuan in 2025 and approach 16 billion yuan in 2030, with a very broad market prospect. The market in the consumer electronics field is even larger. There have been many smart glasses products on the market in recent years. Some people think it is the strongest accessory for mobile phones, while others believe it will replace mobile phones as the new mobile terminal.

Ryan, who has been deeply involved in the automotive field, led his team to achieve the first domestic market share of HUD during his tenure as an executive in a large company in the industry, and realized the first mass production of AR HUD in China.

After seeing the opportunity of the next-generation optical display technology, the optical waveguide, Ryan chose to start a business. In 2024, he founded Yunzhan Optoelectronics, aiming to become a core supplier in the in-vehicle optical display products and AR terminal industry, and obtained angel round financing led by Huachuang Capital.

Just like in sci-fi movies, it is often ordinary people without superpowers who realize their dream of changing the world with the help of technology. The same is true for Ryan. He hopes to create new human-machine interaction experience products by applying optical waveguide technology to in-vehicle and wearable devices, thus bringing the future closer to reality.

The full text sharing is as follows:

Q: Huachuang Capital

A: Ryan, Chairman and CEO of Yunzhan Optoelectronics

Keep Pace with Sci-Fi Blockbusters

Huachuang Capital: How do you understand the core business, main products, and the technical path you have chosen for Yunzhan Optoelectronics?

Ryan: We position ourselves as "China's leading supplier of in-vehicle and wearable AR display products". Our product line applications focus on in-vehicle and wearable devices, and the core behind them is based on the next-generation optical display technology - optical waveguide.

There are many technical routes for optical waveguides, including geometric optical waveguides, diffractive optical waveguides, and volume holography, etc. They each have their own characteristics and advantages and disadvantages in different applications. All three routes can form specific optical structures in the substrate in different ways to change the propagation direction of light. Our team has developed and produced waveguides for all three technical routes and achieved certain results.

Optical waveguides are widely used, and in-vehicle and AR terminal displays are two major application scenarios. In terms of in-vehicle displays, we have developed PGU, waveguide sheets, and ARC software algorithms. Among them, the design of the assembly was previously blank in the industry, and we creatively developed a new product form.

Therefore, Yunzhan positions itself as a second-tier supplier for in-vehicle and consumer OEMs, with key components as the core and the design ability of the whole machine as value-added services to serve downstream customers. We hope that Yunzhan Optoelectronics can become an excellent supplier in the in-vehicle and AR terminal industries and promote a qualitative leap in the human-machine interaction experience through the new generation of optical technology.

Huachuang Capital: How does the advantage of optical waveguides compared with traditional HUDs be reflected? In which dimensions have there been breakthroughs?

Ryan: Since the volume of HUDs increased in 2019, the market evaluation has been mixed. Especially for the current HUD products using free-form surface technology, consumers, car manufacturers, and suppliers all have more or less complaints about it.

For consumers, they need a safer and cooler human-machine interaction method, which requires a larger display frame and a more immersive augmented reality effect. However, the virtual image frame of the current AR HUD is not large enough, and the augmented reality effect is also not up to expectations. For suppliers, the pain point of past HUDs lies in the complex production process of the product structure and the low reuse rate of product components. In the eyes of OEM car manufacturers, if the in-vehicle product is too large, it cannot be installed in the car. In addition, the difficulty of product disassembly and assembly will also affect after-sales maintenance. Moreover, if good reusability can be achieved, the R & D cost of car manufacturers will be reduced accordingly.

We found that the assembly of optical waveguide technology can enhance the augmented reality effect, reduce the product volume, and greatly improve the reusability of components. It has solved the pain points of consumers, suppliers, and car manufacturers accordingly. More importantly, for some models that want to produce AR display products, optical waveguide technology must be used. These models will be our alpha business.

Huachuang Capital: How do you judge that the market explosion point of AR glasses is approaching?

Ryan: I have been paying attention to near-eye display terminals. Although no one has made an analogy between near-eye display terminals and in-vehicle HUDs, in fact, their technical paths are all the same.

CHUD is equivalent to the prism reflection glasses of the past, with limited content display and no product competitiveness, so naturally no one wants it. The current popular HUDs and many BB - scheme glasses on the market all use free-form surface technology. The in-vehicle field has a certain tolerance for space and weight, so HUDs exploded first, but smart glasses are still limited to industrial applications. The optical waveguide technology has greatly optimized the volume and weight, so AR glasses have the foundation for an explosion, and in-vehicle displays will also enter the second explosion.

Smart glasses have been stuck in the audio glasses stage, and there were already some near-eye display technologies at that time. After the emergence of the AI large model, I thought that AI glasses with cameras would appear and soon add display functions. This is because when the AI large model can listen and see synchronously with people, it will become a super external brain for people. And people obtain 87% of information through vision, but only 7% through hearing. Therefore, AR glasses with audio, camera, and display functions have met all the conditions to enter the product development stage.

Huachuang Capital: How did you notice the pain points in the industry at that time? You were an executive in a large domestic company before. Why did you still choose to start your own business?

Ryan: I have been deeply involved in the automotive electronics field for the past 14 years, covering many products. I have had many experiences of bringing products from 0 to 1, and I also actively gave up some products. The last business I was responsible for before starting my business was the in-vehicle head-up display. For this product, we achieved the first mass production of AR HUD in China, the first self-developed and mass-produced AR software algorithm, the first mass production of PHUD, etc. After seizing the market opportunity of HUD in 2019, we quickly became the first in China and the top three in the world, which was quite smooth.

I have always been a product person, and I naturally have the idea of being prepared for danger in times of safety. Although we were the first in the industry at that time, I was always worried that some other technologies or competitors might emerge unexpectedly and change the current competitive situation. So I would pay extra attention to new technologies. Until later, when I saw the optical waveguide, I thought it would be a huge disruption to the optical display technology.

As a product manager who has done technology, sales, management, and understands some finance, when I saw this new technology, I felt that it was my mission to turn it into a good product. Of course, I'm not a reckless person. I will make some preparations. In 2024, all the timing was right, and I started my business and founded Yunzhan Optoelectronics.

Huachuang Capital: As a startup company, what are the core advantages of the Yunzhan team that can compete with other large companies in the market?

Ryan: Although we have been established for a short time, our technical team already has the R & D ability for micro-nano optical components, the R & D ability for imaging optical modules, the full-stack self-developed ability for automotive electronics, and the AR software algorithm ability. Such a configuration can be said to be top - notch.

But our most core advantage is the "mash - up". Each industry has its own strengths and limitations. Our team members come from the automotive industry, the micro-nano optical industry, and the consumer electronics industry. Through integration, we have come up with new products and technical solutions. For example, a technical difficulty that cannot be solved in one industry may already have a solution in another industry. This is the charm of "interdisciplinary and cross - industry cooperation", which also enables us not to follow or conform.

In addition, for optical display products, optics determines the lower limit of the product, and software determines the upper limit. If optics is the stage for product functions, then the algorithm is the program. We will build a good stage and rehearse a good program to create a new human-machine interaction experience.

All of the above are the pre - conditions for our differentiated competition.

Huachuang Capital: Who are your current main customer groups? What targeted strategies and services has Yunzhan Optoelectronics adopted to meet the needs of different customer groups?

Ryan: Our main cooperation customers are in the in-vehicle and smart wearable fields. We are very familiar with the in-vehicle industry, so it may develop faster. Currently, we have more foreign customers, and they hope to quickly implement some POC (Proof of Concept). While domestic customers mostly hope that we can quickly provide mass - producible solutions and then quickly launch them into the market.

Our industry is quite competitive, and everyone hopes to quickly launch products into the market. From the perspective of product characteristics, our products have relatively strong reusability. So for consumer products, we will standardize the components to quickly launch them into the market. For customers with customized needs, usually from the in-vehicle industry, we will handle them specially. According to our past experience, after forming a scale in the future, they will also become standardized components, concentrated in a few product parameter levels.

In addition, what the human-machine interaction interface of new products will look like is still undetermined. Software determines the application experience of a product, so we need to invest a long - term effort in software refinement in the future. It requires not only solving technical problems but also continuous communication with customers.

Huachuang Capital: For Yunzhan Optoelectronics, a new entrant in the field, how can it find its own competitive advantage in the competition in the optical waveguide field?

Ryan: Optical waveguide is a broad category, and the downstream of each segmented field is a huge market. As I mentioned before, we are a "mash - up" company, with people from the in-vehicle and consumer fields, and from the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. Combining the upstream and downstream, we can naturally understand the pain points of a certain industry better than competitors. We are more familiar with the in-vehicle field and have made breakthroughs ahead of the market, which is a lead. Driven by the in-vehicle field, we will also accumulate know - how in the consumer electronics field. Coupled with our previous accumulation, a good situation of dual - wheel drive may occur.

Be a Leading Component Supplier

Huachuang Capital: The optical waveguide technology has the possibility of being used in many industries. How large is the corresponding market space now?

Ryan: We are concerned about two application markets for optical waveguides.