The big picture/logical conclusion here is that traditional silicon photonics remains unable to efficiently integrate elements whether it be fiber or devices at the kind of volumes required to support the evolving needs for optical communications.

It's not just the inability to scale low loss coupling points (first they have to acheive low loss coupling). It is also the fact that you can’t effectively optimize active devices in a monolithic system. Each material set requires its own epitaxy and its own processes. How can you take devices through separate annealing steps when they are monolithically combined? You can’t so there are tradeoffs. You do the best you can to optimize the monolithic chip that contains both optical and electrical elements that have different/conflicting processing needs.

So right from the get go Rockley gives us an example of how the industry can’t throw enough money at the problem to find a high volume, high efficiency solution. They are stuck and those needs become more acute as the demands increase. The big foundries have lots of money that they keep plowing into those problems that continue to grow.

It was interesting to listen to the Vanguard presentation on the work they are doing with POET. What really made me scratch my head was the question from Andrew Wylde, Lightwave Logic at time 1:00:20. He asked what the actual temperature requirements for manufacturing the photonic wire bonds were. This really surprised me and I am making an assumption but has LWLG not investigated Vanguards technology? Of course LWLG requires extremely low temperature processing/packaging by the nature of their materials but Vanguard obviously could provide some solutions for LWLG device integration given that their 3d printing is at room temperature.

I hope that people can relax a little here today. We really do need POET to provide some clarity.

I suggest that what they are doing with Mitsubishi is a company maker and that needs to be highlighted so people understand how this trumps everything they have done up to now.