OC…A design win can be conditional, based on successful testing and performance of the prototype.

I would further describe design wins as transitional. We have been told early on that each of these applications represent a customer. And in terms of their NA Tier 1 I think they have further elaborated some time ago that they have aligned on volume and roadmap.

As far as testing I would hope that they will begin to provide some of the general details of the duration and level of stress testing that the prototypes have gone through.  The reality is that a commitment to use the optical interposer as a platform technology to build optical engines for customers is ether a yes or no answer. And I think for those that are engaged the answer is an overwhelming yes. It is the active devices that become the variable. What do you want to do with this platform? What are your preferences for the operating characteristics?

We have had a glimpse of the capabilities of the optical engine to very accurately replicate the data provide by the signal generator with margins that far exceed industry standards. So there is the “seeing is believing” assurance that the platform is not only meeting but exceeding expectations and is truly a breakthrough in optical integration.  So the viability of the platform has been established in the eyes of customers as a low cost high performance replacement to the existing approaches.

Suresh has used an automobile industry analogy. The optical interposer is the chassis and what goes into that chassis is up to the customer. In other words the basis for the design win have happened and it will be up to the customer to decide what that chassis is used for.

So I think there are really two messages that the company is trying to provide to shareholders without saying more than they should.

First: Customers are committed to the optical interposer and thus design wins are assured.

Second: We will find a way to provide shareholders with what these customers are ordering without naming them or providing specific confidential information of what they are ordering.  IMO

From December re first ever DML flip chip lasers:

(3:10) Suresh: Thank you. I’m here with Vivek and Tom as usual. I think we’re going to spend the next few minutes here explaining what we’ve done as a company and what it really means to us as a company and you as a shareholder, either as a long-standing shareholder or potentially new eyes looking at the company as a fantastic new investment opportunity. So before we get started, I kind of want to set some basic definitions out there so we can understand the rest of this presentation. We’ve used many terms in the past, and even in this press release, so I think it’s useful and important to articulate what that really means. You know, the first thing we keep talking about is the concept of a “platform technology.” What does a platform mean? I think I usually go back to an automobile analogy, because that is one industry that has embraced the concept of a platform as a means to quickly put out derivative products, a means to have efficiency, the means to provide scale… and, for example, you could have an engine and you could have multiple components: a six cylinder, a four cylinder, what have you—you’d have multiple power levels. You could have a front-wheel drive, (or) a rear-wheel drive transmission. You could have a chassis that can be put together… the same chassis can be used in a sedan, it can be used in a SUV, and can be used in a sports car in a two-door version. So that’s the definition of a platform: the creation of the chassis, the engine, the transmission, the wrapper, if you will, around the product. And so that means when a customer asks for XYZ you can put these things together faster and more efficiently than you could otherwise. So that concept is what we’re adopting here at POET when we call something a platform. So, the fundamental interposer is a chassis on which multiple components are assembled. And that chassis itself can take various forms, but that is one basic component of the platform. Just like engines power a car, lasers power our interposer, so we would have different types of lasers. What we’ve talked about in this press release, it’s called a directly modulated laser. Or we’d have other lasers. Lasers can have different power levels just like different power levels in the engine of a car. Some people might want something that puts out 20 milliwatts, some people might want something that puts out 50 milliwatts, so this portfolio of specific lasers is important to allow us to customize solutions for customers. Similarly, with transmissions, we have filters—we have two channel filters, four channel filters—just like you would have with a front-wheel drive or a full-wheel drive. So we are creating a menu platform that allows us, over time, to quickly create derivative products that address larger and larger and expanding markets. So that will hopefully give you a good picture of what we mean when we say a platform.

2020-02-03 09:53 ET - News Release

Dr. Suresh Venkatesan reports

POET TECHNOLOGIES COMPLETES OPTICAL INTERPOSER DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Poet Technologies Inc. has released updates related to multiple recent developments across the company.

In January, Poet completed its proof-of-concept project with its existing North American-based networking customer. As previously announced, Poet received orders in 2018 from this customer to provide initial device prototypes of its optical interposer platform to systematically address specific integration requirements under a paid development program. At its annual general meeting in September, the company disclosed that it had successfully completed all but one of an eight-step project and that it expected to complete the final milestone by the end of 2019. Poet recently completed this final deliverable and is now engaged in follow-on discussions aimed at products to be designed, qualified and incorporated into the customer's product portfolio.

"The low loss coupling of light from a laser into our waveguides (which are additionally configurable as coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) multiplexers or demultiplexers) through passive wafer-scale placement techniques and then into fibre demonstrates the complete functionality of the optical interposer platform technology. Moreover, we believe our wafer-scale integrated athermal CWDM filters represent an industry first," commented Dr. Suresh Venkatesan, chairman and chief executive officer. "With optical losses at a fraction of that of other materials, our waveguides and filters enable the fabrication, assembly and testing of integrated optical engines at wafer scale, providing maximum flexibility across a broad range of applications, from datacom to co-packaged optics."