Hi everyone,

Well, I did finish my projects, then had to deliver and install so there went Thurs. and Fri.  In any case, the Photonics Show did not disappoint.  Very interesting and exciting.  I visited the Denselight Booth first.  The staffers there were there to sell product and make contacts with customers.  They didn't seem to know much about developments in Singapore, or at least seemed somewhat neutral.  They did have the SLEDs on display and a customer seemed interested in the Constellation, Ultra-Narrow-Line Width Lasers   I let them do their job with customers and figured I'd come back and hoped to see Suresh there.  On to the Luxmux Booth where I met Yonathan Dattner, President of the company.  He, of course, was excited about the banquet and awards presentation that evening.  We chatted about the technology but no state secrets divulged, and I wished him luck.  I was curious about what II-VI was up to.  They had a very large booth.  More like an exhibition with many displays.  VCSELs, printed wafers, lenses, lots of interesting stuff.  Based on our experience with them (remember EpiWorks) I asked if they had an aggressive management.  The answer was affirmative.  They have plans for rapid growth.  Then on to Coherent.  They had at least 5 large exhibitions and many impressive displays.  Lasers, LEDs, VCSELs.  A popular display a few of the booths had were the Narrow-line Laser with a short polymer rod, maybe 1/2" d x 2" long, attached to the laser, and glowing with every color of the spectrum, in an array of about 8 - 10 different devices, each a different color.  Very attention getting.  I went back to Denselight and Thomas Mica and Bill Ring were there.  We got a chance to chat a bit.  I congratulated Thomas on what I thought were important moves at our Singapore facility.  I commented to Bill the compound semiconductor PIC with dielectric waveguide patent was published and seemed very important to our progress.  He smiled and said thank you.  I never did get to see Suresh at the Show.  The word was he was in many meetings, I would assume with customers or partners.  I could go on and on about the exhibits at the show.  I probably visited 40 or more.  I just ran out of time.  They closed at 5:00, but I was ready for more.  The semiconductor photonics world is a relatively new realm and we are entering a brave new territory.  Very exciting, and I think POET is going to show them how photonic data transmission and detection is integrated monolithically in/on a chip.  The opinions expressed above are my own.  Anyhow, thanks  BT