POET Technologies Inc.

It is much more likely in my opinion that we will see POET using DenseLight IP first for in-plane applications of POET using GaAs and GaN. I think utilizing the POET platform for long haul with InP at the higher wavelength will happen as time goes on and as the company grows in terms of new products. But there are many other applications I believe that are ahead of that for now that involve visible or near visable lightwaves.

Some key points made by Suresh at the THM apply:

00:12:04– Ajit, right at the beginning, he talked about integration, but he was talking about integration in the context of integrating the companies, which is really important, but you would note that the title of the topic was about integrated photonics.

00:12:20– If you think about POET as a company, the vision we want to have for ourselves going forward is we’re an integrated photonics company. The POET technology enables integration of photonics and electronics. Every acquisition we’ve had – DenseLight, BB Photonics – they all bring IP that enables integration of photonics. This is not just spot purchases of companies or acquisitions of companies. It is towards integration and towards a strategy that enables integration of photonics. Go to the DenseLight web site, look at their technology, they talk about integrated photonic circuits. Same thing with BB Photonics: It talks about integration of a platform.

00:13:04– And why is integration important? Ultimately, Photonics requires an integration play in order to drop the cost and enables a much broader adoption of that technology. And so that’s really what we’re about. If people ask you what is POET about, I think the answer is we’re an integrated photonics player. We want to be integrating photonics, integrating photonics and electronics and, of course, we’re going to be integrating the companies together so that we can execute towards our vision going forward.

So my belief is that the ultimate goal is to utilize the POET platform for its capability to integrate mixed signal application (electronics and photonics) at all wavelengths and voltage/power levels to in order to enable disrupt all markets over time. That will be an extremely long lived roadmap.

With these acquisitions I would say we have accelerated the monetization aspect of the technology through the acquisitions, as we are now a revenue generating company and we have cash coming into the company, and that’s an acceleration in and by itself. We do have a diversified business plan that now supports this monetization strategy. It’s got a roadmap that’s around gallium arsenide technology, like what POET was originally construed to be, but we’ve now added and expanded our roadmap and portfolio to include indium phosphide based III-V materials and diversified, if you will, not only just our business plan relative to products and licensing, but also the breadth of the products and the markets that we can go after with these acquisitions.

We have a gallium arsenide technology-based portfolio of intellectual properties that fundamentally enables electronic and photonic integration. Gallium arsenide is a very pervasive material, but it is limited in terms of its wavelength capabilities to about 980 nanometers (nm), for those who talk wavelengths and photonics. Indium phosphide allows that expansion of wavelengths to very, very long wavelengths and hence very long distance communications. So it really helps broaden our portfolio in a very significant way.

What is also more important, there is IP and know-how that comes from both DenseLight and BB Photonics that can enable us to leverage POET technology in ways that even I didn’t think it was possible. When you get new people into the company, they look at the technology and say: „Ah! I can now do this and this with this.“ So we are looking at ways to even expand our portfolio on the POET side as a consequence of these acquisitions.

01:34:50–Q:The 850nm VCSEL-based transceiver is not relying on any of the DenseLight technology integration?

01:35:01–Suresh Venkatesan:No, no.

01:35:12–Suresh Venkatesan:They’re accretive to each other. There are applications, outside of VCSELs, where cleave and code technology, for example, can come into play, and expand the POET technology out of VCSELs and to in-plane lasers, which is another huge application of gallium arsenide technology. So that’s where the accretion comes in which is, can we now take the POET epitaxial stack and only lasing vertically as a VCSEL, can I now use some of the capabilities that the DenseLight team has regards to cleave and code and facet creation and mirror creation and create new products using the POET epitaxy. That’s where Denselight comes in, expanding our range of potential products.