China’s AR waveguides move toward million-unit production scale

At Nika Optical, a new automated line is opening at one million VHG units. Greatar-Tech is targeting one million SRG units, while AAC Technologies is planning SRG capacity at the same level. Together, the moves mark a shift for China’s augmented-reality (AR) optics industry: waveguides are reaching million-unit scale in 2026, rather than remaining a supply bottleneck.

Three routes now define the production map. SRG, or surface-relief grating, is the mainstream diffractive approach. VHG means volume holographic waveguide. PVG, or polarization volume holographic waveguide, is the smallest route this year but the most differentiated optically, according to Pandaily. Parallel Vision’s PVG pilot line came online in late 2025 with annual capacity of fifty thousand units.

The timing follows a fast-growing AR-glasses market. Counterpoint Research says global shipments grew 136 percent year-on-year in Q1 2026, while optical-waveguide glasses increased their market share from 18 percent to 42 percent. Companies including Meta, Alibaba, Rokid and Even Realities are pursuing AI-plus-AR glasses that need high transparency and a sub-millimeter-thin display; waveguides are the technology that currently clears that wearability requirement for consumer AI glasses.

Scaling the glass is only part of the job. Greatar-Tech CEO Meng Xiangfeng lists more than ten requirements that must work together, including eliminating rainbow effects and light leakage, reaching 98 percent transmittance, and delivering a large field of view, high light efficiency, uniform images, contrast and clarity. Parallel Vision CEO Zhang Yuning adds module cost, stable capacity and yield, plus reliability under drops, shocks and humidity.

So what changes in practice? Manufacturers can now build a supply base for AI glasses instead of waiting for waveguides to become producible. That could move the industry’s bottleneck toward whether first-person AI software is useful enough to keep glasses on for an hour, while engineers still have to prove that factory-scale optics meet commercial quality and reliability targets.