# Photonium

> Photonium builds AI for optical design. Its software, Photonium Insight, takes a written spec, a patent PDF, or an existing .ZMX file to a finished, toleranced design, with agents that run analysis, optimization, and tolerancing alongside the tools optical teams already use (Zemax OpticStudio, CODE V, CAD, and custom integrations). Photonium also builds custom automation for a team's own optical workflow, and offers consulting from senior optical engineers, supercharged by AI. Backed by Y Combinator and a member of the NVIDIA Inception Program.

Photonium is also known as Photonium Optics. In Photonium's engineering work, automation explores configurations and optimizes workflows, but all design choices undergo expert review.

## Products and services

- [Photonium Insight](https://photonium.ai/#insight): AI optical design software. One environment for the entire design loop, from spec or design file to a working, toleranced design.
- [Custom automation](https://photonium.ai/#how): Photonium builds the tooling for a team's exact optical workflow, inside the tools the team already uses.
- [Consulting](https://photonium.ai/#consulting): senior optical engineers for concept, design, tolerancing, and factory handoff.

## Photonium Insight capabilities

- Chat-driven design environment: the agents write and run the scripts, execute the analyses and optimization, and propose design changes, which are applied once the engineer approves them.
- Inputs: a .ZMX file, a written spec, or a patent PDF.
- Analysis on request: ray trace, spot diagram and RMS wavefront error, MTF, PSF, Seidel coefficients, RMS vs. field.
- Optimization and tolerancing: merit functions, Monte Carlo tolerancing, compensators, as-built analysis.
- Outputs: native .ZMX export, analysis results, and tolerance results.
- Also: design generation from a spec, a searchable patent prescription database, stock lens catalog search, and ISO 10110 fabrication drawings.
- Integrations: Zemax OpticStudio, CODE V, CAD, and custom integrations.
- Self-improving optics knowledge drawn from patents, spec sheets, and prior designs.
- Versioning, live collaboration on shared projects, and full observability and control over what the agents do.

## Who Photonium works with

- Applications: satellites, machine vision, AR/VR, flow cytometry, quantum computing, UV lighting, and consumer electronics.
- Industries: quantum computing, automotive, semiconductor, aerospace and defence, life sciences, and consumer electronics.
- Engineers from Meta, Google, Apple, KLA, and Applied Materials.
- Team from Harvard, Stanford, MIT, the University of Arizona, Jane Street, and QuEra.
- Advisors: Philip Johnston (founder and CEO, Starcloud), Prof. Lambertus Hesselink (Stanford), Prof. Sitan Chen (Harvard), Prof. Ioannis Gkioulekas (CMU).

## Engineering blog

Each post is also available as Markdown at the same address with `.md` appended, and all of them together, after this file, at https://photonium.ai/llms-full.txt.

- [Engineering blog](https://photonium.ai/research): engineering notes from the Photonium team on optical design, lens engineering, and applying AI to optical workflows.
- [Introducing the Photonium Patent Corpus: 13,091 imaging lenses from US patents](https://photonium.ai/research/the-photonium-patent-corpus): June 2026 research release. 13,091 imaging-lens prescriptions extracted from 2,239 US patents (72% from 2015 onwards), each cross-checked against its source patent, raytraced, and delivered as Zemax and Optiland files. Spans EFLs from 0.09 mm to 1,334 mm, f/0.9 to f/71, and half fields of view from under 1° to 110°.
- [From 69% to 97% accuracy: engineering an LLM to diagnose optical aberrations](https://photonium.ai/research/engineering-llm-for-optical-diagnosis): May 2026 deep-dive by Adam Mhatre. How Photonium's Optical Mental Model names the limiting aberration of a lens from ray fans, OPD, MTF, and Seidel terms with 97% accuracy, against about 69% for Claude Opus 4.7 on its own.

## Company

- Website: https://photonium.ai/
- Founders: Jennifer Song (co-founder and CEO), Adam Mhatre (co-founder and CTO)
- Contact: founders@photonium.ai
- Book a demo, a consulting call, or apply for a role: https://photonium.ai/#contact
- Careers: hiring founding machine-learning engineers, software engineers, and optical engineers and consultants, https://photonium.ai/#join
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/photonium-optics
- Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/photonium

## Optional

- [Optiland vs Zemax: an engine cross-check](https://photonium.ai/research/the-photonium-patent-corpus/engine-comparison.html): companion to the patent corpus. A Cooke triplet, a smartphone lens, and a 106° wide-angle lens traced in both engines; ray fans agree to a few hundredths of a micron.