POET Technologies (PTK.V) is a design and development company offering integration solutions based on the POET Optical Interposer™ a novel platform that allows seamless integration of electronic and photonic devices into a single multi-chip module using advanced wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques and packaging methods.
POET’s eliminates costly components and labor-intensive assembly used in conventional photonics. The integration and scalability brings value to any device or system that integrates electronics and photonics, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and high-speed networking for cloud service providers and data centers.
Coverage was initiated December 2021. Below is an update.
News Releases
Jan 24 - Named to 2022 OTCQX Best 50.
Feb. 1 - Participation at OFC 2022: The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC) is the world’s largest conference and exhibition for optical communications and networking professionals.
In support of the planned Nasdaq listing in Q1 of 2022, POET hhas intensify its Investor and Public Relations. The Company has entered into a marketing and consulting contract with North Equities.
North Equities will facilitate greater awareness and widespread dissemination of the Company's news. For a 12-month contract, the Company will pay North Equities $200,000 and 230,000 options, with the services and payments being divided into two six-month periods, cancellable after the first 6 months.
Feb. 10 - To Supply Celestial AI with its Optical Interposer-based Integrated Light Engine Modules: Entered into an agreement with Celestial AI to provide multi-laser integrated external light source (ELS) modules using its advanced packaging platform based on the POET Optical Interposer. The agreement includes a contract for continued platform development, along with a purchase order for initial quantities of the advanced modules.
“The customized Optical Interposer platform that we have co-developed with POET is among the most advanced of its kind in high-speed computing,” said David Lazovsky, founder and CEO of Celestial AI.
Feb. 22 - Advances Toward Nasdaq Listing: Determined to proceed with a ten-for-one consolidationof its common shares in order to meet Nasdaq listing requirements and the Company’s own post-consolidation price target.
The Company expects that trading of the Common Shares on a post-consolidation basis on the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”) will commence on or about Monday, February 28, 2022.
The Consolidation has no material impact on the dollar value of investor’s shares. The 364,967,272 Common Shares currently issued and outstanding will be reduced to approximately 36,496,727 on a post-consolidation basis
Feb. 24 - Collaborate on Ultra-High-Performance Photonic Integrated Circuits with Liobate Technologies: To incorporate advanced Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (“TFLN”) modulators onto POET’s Optical Engines supporting power-efficient ultra-high-bandwidth electro-optic conversion for data center and telecom applications.
This multi-phase, co-development project is initially focused on delivering and commercializing a POET 400/800Gps Transmit and Receive Optical Engine. TFLN-based electro-optic modulators, as well as Directly Modulated Lasers (DML) that do not require a separate modulating device.
Mar. 1 - Announces Product Demos and Technology Showcase Event at OFC and Appoints New Executive: Announced the appointment of Raju Kankipati as Vice President – Product Line Management. POET’s Optical Engine products will include a 200G FR4 TX (transmit) engine and a 400G FR4 RX (receive) engine which will be demonstrated live to customers, business partners, analysts, media and other attendees by appointment.
Mar. 3 - Launches 400G FR4 and 800G (2x400G FR4) Receive Optical Engines: The POET 400G FR4 Receive Optical Engine Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) is the industry’s only chip-scale integrated (single chip) version of a FR4 RX Optical Engine available today, with associated performance, power and cost advantages that apply to a dual 400G FR4 (for an 800G) receive solution as well. The advantages are derived enables the integration of “best of breed” photonic components onto a single chip “passively,”without any costly “active” alignment requirements.
LightCounting has forecasted that the market for 400G and 800G Ethernet transceiver modules will exceed $2B annually by 2024. The 400G and 800G Optical Engines will be manufactured and provided by SPX.
Mar. 14 -Commences Trading on Nasdaq Under Symbol “POET”
Mar. 15 - Provides Update on Successful Showing at the Optical Fiber Conference: Reported live demonstrations of its recently announced 200G FR4 Transmit and 400G FR4 Receive Optical Engines.
FR4 is a multiplexed standard that transmits and receives up to 2 kilometers, compared to its DR4 counterpart which supports a parallel four-lane standard limited to 500m. The number of fibers required is also a factor, with DR4 requiring eight per module and FR4 requiring only two per module. Additionally, the small footprint of our optical engines was literally met with amazement. We overheard many comments about the incredible compact size of our optical engines and the elegance of the engineering, demonstrating once again that “seeing is believing”.
Mar. 15 - Responds to Shenzhen Lockdown: Tasked both Singapore and our joint venture, Super Photonics Xiamen, with the task of continuing to build samples for customers. We do not believe this temporary lockdown will have any effect on our planned delivery schedule to customers, prospective customers or business partners
“Over the past two years, we have established redundancy for critical activities in Singapore, Shenzhen and Allentown, Pennsylvania, both to accelerate development and to cope with COVID-19 lockdowns,” -CEO of POET Technologies.
Apr. 19 - Joins New Center for Photonics Integration as Founding Member: Joined the Singapore Hybrid-Integrated Next Generation micro-Electronics (SHINE) Center at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
The mission of the SHINE Center is to address fundamental issues arising in IoT microelectronics and to engage industry players during the development cycle, to eventually translate the technology to industry.
Apr. 26 - Reports Fourth Quarter 2021 Financial Results:
i) Secured a commitment from a leading network systems company for a unique multi-engine design for 100G CWDM4 and 100G LR4 Optical Engines. The combined value for the initial units exceeds US$1.2M;
ii) Established the first phase of a supply agreement with a leading global supplier of lasers and other components used in high-speed optical networking equipment. The companies will collaborate on the design and production of flip-chippable Continuous Wave (CW) high power lasers for use in the Company’s 400G optical engines;
iii) Began collaboration on multi-phase, co-development project with Liobate Technologies to incorporate advanced Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) modulators into the Company’s optical engines, with a focus on commercializing POET’s 400/800Gps Transmit and Receive optical engines for data center and telecom applications;
iv) Ended Q4 with cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $21.3 million and no debt.
May 11 - Reports First Quarter 2022 Financial Results: Financial Summary:
June 7 - Appoints Theresa Lan Ende as Board Advisor; To be Nominated as Director at October Annual Meeting. She is:currently Chief Procurement Director of Arista Networks, as an advisor to the Company’s Board of Directors.
June 21-Appoints Renowned Industry Expert Michal Lipson as Board Advisor: a pioneer and thought leader in silicon photonics as well as a highly-published researcher in physics, as an advisor to the Company’s Board of Directors.
June 29 - Announces Availability of 400G FR4 and 800G (2x400G FR4) Receive Optical Engines for QSFP-DD and OSFP Transceivers for Cloud Data Centers: The company has shipped samples to multiple lead customers and expects the 400G FR4 Receive Optical Engine to be in production at Super Photonics, its JV with Sanan IC, by the end of Q3 2022.
July 6 - Announces Sampling of 200G FR4 Transmit and Receive Optical Engines for QSFP56 Transceivers for Cloud Data Centers and 5G Connectivity: POET shipped samples to multiple lead customers via Super Photonics (JV with Sanan IC), and expects the 200G FR4 TX and RX Optical Engines to be in production by the end of 2022.
The 200G FR4 Transmit Optical Engine integrates four high-speed directly modulated lasers (“DMLs”) each operating at 50 Gigabits/second speed with a low-loss AWG (Arrayed Waveguide Grating)-based multiplexer that is monolithically integrated on the Optical Interposer. Monitor photodiodes are built into the Engine for active power monitoring.
Aug. 8 - Reports Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results:
POET has identified two key milestone objectives for the balance of 2022: i) the development of a 400G FR4 multiplexed TX engine that will be combined with the existing 400G RX to create a full transmit and receive sub-assembly for a 400G transceiver module; and ii) the delivery of samples of a packaged light source assembly for Celestial AI, a lead customer for Artificial Intelligence – Machine Learning (AI-ML) accelerator chips.
In support of the strategy to develop transceiver modules, the Company has also modified the Optical Interposer platform so that it can more readily accept lasers from leading global suppliers, and included the capability to assemble the necessary electronic components directly onto the interposer platform.
Summary
Earnings
POET is very much a pre-revenue company. Hence there is a little to report on that front.
Unfortunately, YTD 2022 Net Losses are ahead of last year and Cash is also down significantly.
Consolidation
POET Technology completed a 10 to 1 share consolidation to meet NASDAQ Listing requirements in February 2022. On March 14th, 2022, the company began trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol "POET". Note that North Equities was hired at the time to promote the NASDAQ transition ($0.2M and 0.23M options) for a 12 month contract.
Partnerships
Two major aggreements were released in the period.
1. A supply agreement with Celestial AI (February 2022) to provide multi-laser integrated external light source (ELS) modules using its advanced packaging platform based on the POET Optical Interposer. The agreement includes a contract for continued platform development, along with a P.O. for initial quantities of the advanced modules
2. Collaboration with Liobate Technologies (also February 2022) to incorporate advanced Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (“TFLN”) modulators onto POET’s Optical Engine towards delivering and commercializing a POET 400/800Gps Transmit and Receive Optical Engine for data center and telecom applications.
Orders
As part of the Q4 2021 (April 2022), POET reported a US$1.2M commitment from a leading network systems company for a unique multi-engine design for 100G CWDM4 and 100G LR4 Optical Engines.
Membership
POET joined the Singapore Hybrid-Integrated Next Generation micro-Electronics (SHINE) Center; April 2022.
Conferences
POET demonstrated at Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC 2022) its 200G FR4 TX (transmit) engine and a 400G FR4 RX (receive) engine receiving positive feedback and interest.
FR4 is a multiplexed standard that transmits and receives up to 2 kilometers, compared to its DR4 counterpart which supports a parallel four-lane standard limited to 500m. The number of fibers required is also a factor, with DR4 requiring eight per module and FR4 requiring only two per module.
Appointment
Raju Kankipati as VP, Product Line Management (Mar. 2022).
Theresa Lan Ende and Michal Lipson as Board Advisor (June 2022)
Product Launch
March 2022. POET launched the 400G FR4 and 800G (2x400G FR4) Receive Optical Engines. POET stated:
The POET 400G FR4 Receive Optical Engine Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) is the industry’s only chip-scale integrated (single chip) version of a FR4 RX Optical Engine available today.
June 2022, POET reported to have shipped samples of the 200G FR4 Transmit and Receive Optical Engines (for QSFP56 Transceivers for Cloud Data Centers and 5G Connectivity) to multiple lead customers. via Super Photonics (JV with Sanan IC). POET expects the 200G FR4 TX and RX Optical Engines to be in production by year end.
The 200G FR4 Transmit Optical Engine integrates four high-speed directly modulated lasers (“DMLs”) each operating at 50 Gigabits/second speed with a low-loss AWG (Arrayed Waveguide Grating)-based multiplexer that is monolithically integrated on the Optical Interposer. Monitor photodiodes are built into the Engine for active power monitoring.
In short
POET Technology achieved a numbers of important milestones: i) A supply agreement with Celestial AI and Liobate Technologies (February 2022), ii) Provided live demonstrations of its 200G FR4 Transmit and 400G FR4 Receive Optical Engines at The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition -OFC (March 2022) . iii) Launched 400G FR4 and 800G (2x400G FR4) Receive Optical Engines (March 2022) . iv) Secured a US $1.2M commitment for a unique multi-engine design for 100G CWDM4 and 100G LR4 Optical Engines (April 2022). v) Disclosed availability of 400G FR4 and 800G (2x400G FR4) Receive Optical Engines (June 2022) with an expected production by Q4 2022. vi) Began sampling of 200G FR4 Transmit and Receive Optical Engines for QSFP56 Transceivers for Cloud Data Centers and 5G Connectivity (July 2022) which it expects to be in production by the end of 2022.
Despite the above milestones and a 10-1 share consolidation valuation has been singicantly reduced, Why is that? Sure market conditions have changed but a look at the current investor presentation (August 2022) suggests other factors.
Go-to-Market Plan
Granted, POET is currently sampling a number of different products: i) 100G CWDM4, 100G LR4 OE, ii) 200G FR4 OE, iii) 200G FR4 TX and iii) 400G FR4 RX OE, However, as displayed by the Product Roadmap below most of these products are in the Alpha version. In fact, three of the six products in the POET JV are currently slated to be in Beta (Q3 2022) and released to production in Q4 2022; 100G CWDM4, 100G/200G Rx OE and 400G FR4 Rx OE.
Product Roadmap
The 400G FR4 Tx OE and the Package lightbar Alpha version are highlighted as "Key Near-term Milestones".
However, "Current Active Customer Engagement" are at best 10 to 16 months away. In the recent Q2 Earnings release:
POET has identified two key milestone objectives for the balance of 2022: i) the development of a 400G FR4 multiplexed TX engine that will be combined with the existing 400G RX to create a full transmit and receive sub-assembly for a 400G transceiver module; and ii) the delivery of samples of a packaged light source assembly for Celestial AI, a lead customer in the emerging growth market for Artificial Intelligence – Machine Learning (AI-ML) accelerator chips.
Development of 400G FR4 multiplexed Tx engine to be combined with the 400G Rx seems ambitious given that the latter is still in Beta and at best and is scheduled to be released in production in Q4 2022. Also, the Alpha version of the Package Lightbar Alpha version is currently scheduled for Q4 2022 which is also very ambitious. Even if POET keeps the current schedule, Celestial AI is not slated for a "Customer Expected Production " before 2H 2023.
In this context, the reported cash balance of $11.4M in Q2 2022 is likely to be insufficent even at a $1.25M burn rate. Especially given the number of efforts that are ongoing in Q3 2022 and the incremental ones scheduled for Q4 2022.
Overall, commercialization efforts are still in early days.
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