I thought the News today was great.  We have a large State-of-the-Art Foundry Partner, and it’s (relatively) close, about 450-500 miles, a short hop by plane.  SilTerra, in the Kulim Hi-Tech Park.  They are following an aggressive growth plan, and they seem to embrace POET as a very important partner.  I see this as a huge boost to the development of our interposer, now.  (Emphasis on the NOW part).  Surely it will take some time to install the machinery and equipment, & set-up and optimize them, and process the wafers,  but key (to me) is we are starting now.  This is not an MOU.  As ch6is pointed out, (and btw ch6is, thank you for your extraordinary post outlining the transceiver world for us) these things take time.   Without doubt, we are at a certain point in our development right now.  No matter where that is, having an enthusiastic foundry will accelerate development progress dramatically.  The sooner we start the high production process, the sooner it is complete.  (that’s the way I see it) 

 And exactly what are we developing at SiTerra?  The Optical Interposer Platform w/ Dielectric Wave guides for tranceiviers.   

(trying to make a point here, please bear with me)

Importantly, Dr Bill Ring commented on a couple things when we talked at the OFC Conference.  I asked him what he thought the most significant part of the Interposer Platform w/Dielectric Waveguides as he sees it.  He made a point to say (paraphrased) the Dielectric Waveguides are the most important part of the Platform.  

“Other waveguide technologies [Glass, Silica, SiN] don’t have the capability to INTEGRATE with Si CMOS”

                                                                      (from new website)

He also said the electronic part of the communication transfer of light signal to electronic signal is the weak link.  

The ability to apply light signal to Si CMOS, a well understood efficient, extremely versatile electronic technology, in my opinion, is a huge advantage in development, driving to and past 100g in our optical transceiver package.   A “native” 100Gbe SFP, would be a 100G optic/100G electronic transceiver.   This has not been built yet.    

We watch as Suresh’s plan unfolds before us, part of which, as witnessed with today’s news.  To get this far, a very much de-risked POET,  We can talk about putting together an extremely impressive BOD, and Management team, extremely powerful IP, targeting and closing in on a market crying for supply, with a product that will make competition seem minor league, putting together the engine (foundry (s) and personnel to build it.  Suresh said 2018 will be the year we put this together.  Looks good to me.

Today, I was very impressed with the depth of knowledge, insight, and the spirit of contribution to  (I can’t think of a better term at the moment ) Due Diligence, submitted on the board today.  We had posts from all over the world adding to the discussion.  Thanks to all, I learn so much here, on so many levels.   btw, I did reach out to WW and I think we have a lot in common.  Sorry this is so long. I’ve been kind of excited all day but too busy to write.  I guess might have some Welsh in me.  All good :)  BT