The POET story - Back to basics
posted on
Apr 29, 2016 02:25PM
POET has been one hell of a ride as of now, and promises to be even more so in the near future.
So a small re-cap for new and old investors alike..
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POET-Technologies is engaged in Electronics/Photonics technologies. The company has a goal to produce a platform in which supports verticals ranging from:
Data Centers
Servers/Routers
FPGA optical IO
High Speed Data Comms (AOC)
LAN/SAN
USB3.0/4.0
HDMI
High Speed Short Range Communications
LWIR/MWIR Detectors
IR Camera Illumination [850nm VCSEL arrays]
Industrial Heating
Commercial Print
Cosmetics and Health Care
Pump Lasers
Switch LEDs
Gesture Recognition
Non Contact Navigation
Depth Imaging – 3D Vision
Smart Pixel Arrays
But what is POET?.. Essentially POET is a proprietary process/design(stack) of Gallium Arsenide/Indium Arsenide wafers.
What differentiates POET is the "recipe" for the layers at the wafer level. A wafer can be made from Silicon, Gallium Arsenide, Indium Phosphide, etc.. It's essentially a disc made from various elements whom support a process called "etching & layering" to form various "electronics/photonics" like a processor, memory, lasers, sensors, imaging, etc..
So, POET-Technologies has patented a proprietary "stack" in which form these wafers and the ability to produce POET-components on these wafers.
Now POET-Technologies has had many ups & downs and challenges throughout the years, it's been a long journey to say the least, some of us being here for over 5 years.. Some new(and old, haha) investors might be wondering "why is it taking so long?" The short answer is: this is a gigantic technological undertaking, with many many moving parts..
In these past years it seemed the big one was always just on the horizon, eluding us quite often, but after gaining new knowledge and re-calibrating our Due Diligence, collectively, this forum amassed some pretty impressive in-dept semiconductor industry knowledge.
What we've learned these past years is... It takes many steps before POET-Technologies can accomplish a product/revenue.
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Here's a recap of the steps the company has established:
Wafer Manufacturer(foundry) - Epiworks
This is the first step if you will, POET-Technologies takes it's "wafer recipe" to the Epiworks Foundry for the production of the base: POET-Enabled-Wafer.
Wafers are Part 1. of the secret sauce in which create the platform for POET-Enabled-Devices to be manufactured on said wafers.
Wafer stacks are highly complicated, they require a plethora of trial and error to achieve the ideal levels of all the elements that go into composing the many layers in which form the wafers themselves. POET has perfected their wafer recipe over the course of many many years.
These are finally being manufactured in a real 3rd-party Foundry(Epiworks) in current day.
http://www.poet-technologies.com/poet-technologies-and-epiworks-announce-development-and-supply-agreement/
Fab(fabrication plant) - Wavetek(3rd-Party)
Part 2 of the process is layering & etching these said wafers Epiworks manufactures to then enable POET devices, ie: VCSEL(lasers for communication, etc), Detectors(sensors for military, virtual reality, etc), FETs(transistors)
This is where Wavetek comes in, they receive the POET-Wafers and "print"(layer/etch) POET's designs for Lasers, Detectors & Transistors.
At present moment Wavetek has successfully made POET-Designed-Detectors. The results of the POET Detectors are spectacular, surpassing everything known today in the current market.
See here:
http://www.poet-technologies.com/poet-operations-update/
Were are waiting on results of the VCSELs(lasers for data communications) and FETs(transistors), these should be released very soon and the results will be very telling. Now, POET having the same base(Wafer design) for all it's devices lends to the theory that all POET devices will have very impressive metrics.
POET Development/Manufacturing Fab – ie: Denselight(To be POET owned)
Current day, POET to acquire Denselight.
POET will now have a development Lab/Fab where they can work on POET designs. With it comes revenue and distribution from Denselight Semiconductors.
http://www.poet-technologies.com/poet-to-acquire-denselight-semiconductors/
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The final question: Have all the steps been accomplished in order to unlock NRE payments?
We are about to find out the answer to that question soon. (expected in 2016)
In my opinion, POET-Technologies is a very good risk/reward bet at the moment, being significantly de-risked, having world class leadership, and having proved one vertical already as being exceptionally better than any product in it's class currently available.
Shareholders are waiting on the VCSEL/FETs results to be out at anytime, and shareholders are waiting(finally, rightfuly-so this time, I hope!) the first NRE payment(s) or Partnership(s) that will surely come of those soon..
This is where it gets interesting.
As the great Cosmo Kramer once said: Giddy-Up.
Cheers!
Abel
ps: It would be great if the board could contribute more detailed and basic explanations of POET on top of my post, as it would serve for a great intro to the POET story for those interested.
As always: Do not take this as investment advice, always do your own Due Diligence.