The answer to the technology risk My Question to Lee Shepherd:
I have heard zero discussion about technology risk. It doesn’t exist?
Answer:
There has been a lot of technology risk in the past.
Me: The laser was a big one for sure.
Lee: The laser, the form it is in now with so many modes and features it took a while to get there. But Geoff built his first working laser in 93.
Peter: I think the technology risk was a while ago.
Lee: The technology risk I think was that it took a quarter century to get rid of the technology risk.
Me: So scaling isn’t considered any issue?
Lee: That is one of the areas that a tremendous amount of work has been done is in modeling the scaling of both the electrical features, devices as well as the optical ones. And that is what I think the last tweaks really from about 2004 to 2010 the process tweaks were only to make it more amenable to building devices on the same die of very different sizes. But I think that from what Geoff has done is that he has been able to keep at this problem long enough to get the technology risk under control.
Peter: What I have learned from Geoff is that although he looks like just a scientific guy, he actually really thinks outside of the box in terms of how would the companies. 10 years ago how would these companies be able to put it into their systems? Not just getting it to work in their labs. He has done that work and that is the great thing. It is one thing to be able to do it but can I make a thousand can I make a 100 million of these can I do it. And he has thought of that.
Lee: And one big thing that I was very pleased to see is that this has always been in Geoff’s mind. How do I do things so they can be made with semiconductor fabrication equipment that exists today? That is the real key. Because anytime you need a new widget you have got interdependency in the way. So I would have to say... Is there a lot of technology risk in this space? Absolutely. I could name 25 companies that it has killed. Has there been technology risk in Geoff’s past? Absolutely. I think it took 24 years to get past it. I have been in the semiconductor business and been a device designer long enough that I can say Geoff is well past that stage. We are building proof points of the last 23 years of Geoff’s work that we can give to people.