POET Technologies is commercializing now with a breakthrough technology that delivers needed improvements in speed, size and performance for the semiconductor and optoelectronics industry.
An industry that has struggled to find a reliable and cost-efficient solution to achieving higher speeds of data transfer can now use POET’s proprietary Optical Interposer™ to architect 400G, 800G, 1.6Tbps and 3.2Tbps pluggable transceivers. The Optical Interposer™ has been called “a work of art” by one semiconductor pioneer.
In the near term, POET promises to spark the development of innovative ideas that can transform multi-billion-dollar industries. High-speed networks for cloud service providers and data centers will be among the first adopters of POET’s platform that makes the Internet faster. Using light to speed the flow of data, POET provides customers with the tools needed to solve latency issues, increase the volume of files capable of being transferred, and eliminate aggravating bottlenecks.
Telecom and artificial intelligence businesses will also be among the early customers to commercialize POET products with light sources for Artificial Intelligence accelerator chips, sensing platforms for wearables and medical tech, LiDAR solutions for automated driving, hardware for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and improvements for AR/VR to follow.
Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and with operations in Allentown (Pennsylvania), Shenzhen (China) and Singapore, POET Technologies has created a solution that provides up to 40% lower cost for its customers and a 75% reduction in the size and lowers energy consumption compared to competing legacy solutions. POET seamlessly integrates electronics and photonics devices into a single chiplet that allows the industry to upgrade bandwidth and speed without overhauling existing infrastructure.
Using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques and packaging methods, the Optical Interposer™ eliminates costly components and labour-intensive assembly, alignment, burn-in and testing methods employed in conventional photonics.
POET expects demand for its innovative integration and packaging solutions to grow steadily as the industry recognizes the inherent value of POET’s approach. The company is prepared to meet that demand through a joint venture established with industry giant Sanan Integrated Circuits in Xiamen, China, a subsidiary of Sanan Optoelectronics. Super Photonics, the joint venture company, employs dozens of engineers and includes state-of-the-art equipment ready to hit mass production targets. POET expects customer orders to begin in early 2023 and continue to build as more purchase orders are placed, and the customer roster increases. It plans to perform live demos of its latest products at the OFC 2023 Conference in San Diego (March 7-9).
In addition, POET is a founding member of the SHINE Centre at the National University of Singapore. Launched in 2022, the facility works exclusively on hybrid-integration solutions for the semiconductor and optoelectronics industry and seeks novel methods to utilize the POET Optical Interposer™ for industry needs.
The Technology That Achieves What Industry Giants Couldn’t
POET dramatically simplifies optical module assembly. Its groundbreaking solution for applications of 800G and 1.6Tbps speeds and beyond unlocks possibilities for device-makers that were previously unthinkable with existing technologies.
The biggest names in the global semiconductor and optoelectronics industry have struggled for years, and at great cost, to do what POET has done with a lean team and comparatively small budget.
Using hybrid integration and wafer-scale manufacturing, the company has drastically reduced the number of sub-components within the transceiver and eliminated all internal component active alignments — a first for the industry. The POET Optical Interposer™ is also the first solution capable of reaching 800G, 1.6Tbps and beyond in a pluggable form factor, featuring the world’s smallest chip-scale package for optical engines.
POET Technologies
Through-silicon vias (TSV) on the Optical Interposer™ eliminate wire bonds, improve performance, lower noise and power consumption, and enable simple assembly of the transceiver. Extending the life of pluggable architectures provides unparalleled flexibility to data center design — a significant win for an industry that has searched for a way to gain higher data transfer speeds without expensive retrofitting of infrastructure.
Not only does POET’s hybrid-integration solution bring immense value to the industry, it also eases the burden of adoption as it is designed to seamlessly fit into current transceiver form factors. Wafer-scale manufacturing allows scalability in volume, lower cost and ultimately, higher performance. The elegance and flexibility of the Optical Interposer™ platform allow it to move to the next generations without time-consuming or costly reinvention. Notably, the company’s road map includes a 6.4Tbps 16-lane dual waveguide co-packaged optics module that is adapted from the foundational platform technology. That product is unique in the industry and promises incredible performance benefits as it nears market readiness.
Commercializing Now — POET’s Suite of Products Gain Traction
In 2023, POET Technologies forecasts production for numerous products, including:
- 400G/800G/1.6Tbps Transmit (Tx) chiplets based on directly modulated lasers (DMLs) and integrated drivers
- 800G/1.6Tbps Receive (Rx) chips with integrated TIAs (trans-impedance amplifiers) are scheduled for customer sampling in Q1 2023
- 800G and beyond Thin Film Lithium Niobate-based Tx solutions are scheduled for customer samples in the first half of 2023. The form factor of this design supports integration up to 1.6Tbps.
- Alpha samples of C-band Light Engines have been delivered to a contracted customer in the AI space, and production is expected to start in the second half of 2023.
Financially, the company has zero debt and is well positioned for rapid growth as its sales ramp up as forecast. Each industry that POET’s solution addresses is a multi-billion-dollar space. The company expects to reach $250 million in revenue in 2025 on its way to becoming a billion-dollar enterprise.
Partnerships with Established Industry Players
As of January 2023, POET has multiple customers, including Celestial AI and FiberTop Technology. Other partners have yet to be named because of the high level of secrecy involved in the semiconductor sector. But POET anticipates being able to reveal more and more about its partnerships and operations as momentum builds around its technology.
Telecom giants in China and large European component makers are among POET’s other partners. A growing number of additional customers have committed to working with POET or are actively engaged in discussions to do so.
POET also announced that it will be usinghighly regarded DMLs from Lumentum and CW (continuous wave) lasers from Broadcom, which makes the Optical Interposer™ products even more attractive to North American and European industry leaders. The best-of-breed components that POET utilizes prove it is ready to be an industry leader as photonics leaps to the forefront of advanced technology.
World-Class Management Team
Dr. Suresh Venkatesan, Chairman & CEO
Prior to joining POET Technologies in 2015, Dr. Venkatesan was the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at GlobalFoundries, the world’s second-largest semiconductor fabrication company, where he was responsible for the development and qualification of all technologies. Dr. Venkatesan grew the 28nm business from zero to $2 billion, successfully building the technology foundations and qualifying it for market acceptance. He played a critical role in new customer acquisition and customer diversification. He was also instrumental in setting the foundation of the 14nm technology strategy for GlobalFoundries.
Dr. Venkatesan owns more than 50 U.S. patents and has co-authored over 50 technical papers. In 2017, he received the Outstanding Alumni award from Purdue University’s Electrical Engineering department for his contributions to the field of semiconductor technology. Dr. Venkatesan received his Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University.
Vivek Rajgarhia, President & General Manager
Prior to Joining POET in 2019, Mr. Rajgarhia was Senior Vice President & General Manager of the Lightwave Business Unit of MACOM. Mr. Rajgarhia joined MACOM through the acquisition of Optomai Inc., where he was the Co-founder and CEO. After the transaction, he started MACOM’s first optical business. He was then instrumental in identifying and leading several strategic acquisitions to build an extensive portfolio of optical and photonics businesses, which formed MACOM’s Lightwave Business Unit. Mr. Rajgarhia has held several senior management positions during his 30 years in the optical communications industry. He was Director of Sales & Marketing (Asia) for Lucent Technologies (now Nokia) optical components, where he started Lucent’s Asia business; Vice President of Product Marketing and Business Development for OpNext (formerly Hitachi’s Fiber Optics Division); Director of Product Management & Marketing for JDS Uniphase (now Lumentum), and VP of Global Sales for GigOptix. At POET, he leads the operations team in Allentown and coordinates the development of the Super Photonics joint venture team in Xiamen.
Dr. Mo Jinyu, Senior Vice President, GM of Asia Operations
Dr. Mo has more than 22 years of experience spanning several companies, including MACOM Technology Solutions, Bookham/Oclaro, Huawei, I2R and Nexvave Photonics Technology Co., which she founded and served as Chief Technology Officer. She is a senior member of IEEE and has been a member of IEEE’s Technical Committees for several international conferences. She has more than 11 patents and 40-plus papers published in tier-one journals and conferences. She leads POET’s operations at its design and development lab in Shenzhen, China, which collaborates closely with business units in Singapore and the Super Photonics joint venture.
Visit poet-technologies.com for updates and to learn more.