Baba>2. We did (put in a bid), but the relative strength of the other bidders makes it a longshot that the huge country of India would get in bed with the tiny company of POET on what I assume is an important project for India - you wouldn't want to be the minister who choose POET and then have POET fail and the decision be viewed in hindsight - "what were you thinking?"  Any light that can be shed on the wherewithall/reputation of the other bidders would be meaningful.

The fly in the ointment as I see it Baba is that no one other than POET has been able to produce a monolithic GaAs optical engine combining both electronics and photonics on the same chip. If one did exist I would have to believe that the eyes and ears of this forum would have discovered this by now. Bill Ring did a presentation that included POETs GaAs platform at the International PIC conference this year and the presentation included this statement:

First III-V process technology to support integration of complementary HFETs and vertical and horizontal Lasers, Detectors and Photonic elements

And as we can see the handful of companies involved in the Pre-Bid Conference for Expression of Interest (EOI) did not include any that have that capability?

So let’s examine the companies that we know were in the pre-submission in greater detail.

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United Monolithic Semiconductors, France: represented by M/s SM Creative Electronics Limited, Gurgaon.

Queries from the vendor:

The GaAs processes are suitable for production of MMIC’s for ground and space applications. These processes are not designed to produce VCSEL. Is SCL willing to consider a process suitable for GaAs MMIC production?

SCL Response:

The requirement is of a technology supporting the development of Gallium Arsenide based Technology for the monolithic integration of RF and photonics devices like VCSEL, Photovoltaic devices and MMICs to SCL leading to the development of monolithic Focal Plane Array (FPA), RF MMICs, VCSELs, VCSEL arrays and triple junction photovoltaic solutions. The vendor was requested to check the feasibility of offering the same to SCL instead of solely MMICs under the technology transfer.

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Magnolia Solar Incorporated, USA

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Light Factory, Russia.  No information on the internet about this company that I could find. They have no MMIC capability and requested if their bid could exclude MMIC.

Answer:

The requirement is of a technology supporting the development of Gallium Arsenide Technology for the monolithic integration of RF and photonics devices like VCSEL, Photovoltaic devices and MMICs to SCL leading to the development of monolithic Focal Plane Array (FPA), RF MMICs, VCSELs, VCSEL arrays and triple junction photovoltaic solutions. The vendor was requested to check the feasibility of offering the same to SCL instead of solely photonic devices under the technology transfer.

POET:

Attended through Skype Conference call and a representative in person, had no queries and had responded to the request for pre-bid queries as follows: “I have read through the EOI document in detail and the statement of work and scope of the EOI is comprehensive and clearly articulated. At this time, we at POET Technologies do not have any specific queries that need to be addressed at the EOI meeting.”

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