Hi  ITTR.

Suresh has unique qualification. When we consider that Suresh led Global Foundries in the development of new technologies it is not hard to accept that he is a visionary and a realist.

The first thing he did when he joined POET was to investigate the capabilities of the GaAs platform and identify what potential commercial role it could provide. It did not take him long to identify a market need that if successful POET could dominate. Multi-mode fiber and 850nm VCSEL optical communications was prevalent in the data center but expensive so it provided longer reach needs within the data center which copper could not. So there was a great unmet need for short reach at a cost that could compete with copper and the AOC became the focus. Many of us were disappointed that he was only focusing on this very small subset of Geoff Taylor’s work but it was absolutely the correct choice. There was as we know many barriers along the way namely the long delays to perform wafer runs necessary for R&D and as result the company ran out of time before solutions could be found.

POET still maintains those patents as far as I know so I expect that there is potential future value. And who knows what the future holds? Dr. Taylor continues to perform work on the platform and there is definitely a reason for this.

The shift as we know to InP was a brilliant move.  It was Suresh the inventor that was able to see Bill Ring’s athermal, dielectric, MUX/DEMUX waveguides and the advantages it could provide if applied to a new platform technology using the kinds of cutting edge concepts that Suresh was involved with as the head of technology development at Global Foundries. The DenseLight fab was not in great shape when they took it over  but with the grant money and operating in a technology friendly hub in a smart city they were able to update the fab and bring in the staff required to develop the OI platform.

It was Suresh that made it happen.

And if we can manage to retain ownership there is much more he will do. I fully believe this.

I think it is possible that the POET GaAs platform will be spun out as there is so much IP there. And I don’t think of it as gathering dust on a shelf but rather it’s time has not come yet but I think that it will.