Austria's ams OSRAM flags milestone on AR smart-glasses chips as Q2 revenue rises

By Leo Marchandon

Aug 4 (Reuters) - Austrian sensor and semiconductor supplier ams OSRAM said on Tuesday it had reached a milestone towards mass-production on chips designed to project images inside next-generation augmented-reality smart glasses, part of a broader push into light and sensor technology called photonics.

The chip in question is a tiny array of diodes that beam pictures onto the lens so the wearer sees images overlaid on the real world. Making the array small and efficient enough to fit into a normal-looking pair of glasses, while using little power, has been one of the biggest engineering hurdles holding back mainstream AR glasses.

The company said it had completed key steps needed to get this light source ready for mass production, but did not give a date for when production would start.

The company also reported a 4% rise in its second-quarter revenue to €805 million ($926.31 million), driven by improving performance in industrial semiconductors and a pick-up in the automotive business. It also confirmed its yearly guidance.

For the third quarter, it expects revenue to be in a range of €770 million to €870 million.

Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 6% from a year ago to €136 million in the quarter, translating to a margin of 16.9%.

The company's core semiconductor portfolio grew around 13% when adjusted for currency headwinds, as its custom sensor products, introduced two years ago, offset the impact from divested or discontinued non-core activities.

Automotive semiconductor revenue rose on client restocking, while consumer revenue softened toward the end of the quarter as memory-chip shortages slowed production at smartphone makers using ams OSRAM's components, it said.

($1 = 0.8690 euros)

(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)