Baba: I disagree with FJ's opinion that this whole sale is not tied to the readiness of the OI; I think it has been all along, but $8 million is a nice down payment (if we couldn't get the whole thing).  That's why I want us to actually get the money, no strings attached, by October 31.  We'll see.

Yes Baba they do want the OI based optical engines.  Otherwise why build a high-volume manufacturing plant in Suzhou?

So remember when Lam Lee Loy presented the DenseLight (a POET company) at Asia Communications and Photonics Conference Hangzhou, China, Oct. 26-29, 2018

Advances in PIC – Using DenseLight’s HIPPTM

Platform to Deliver Integrated Sensing

Optical Engines & Interrogator Systems

That development was related to the sensing capabilities using the OI enabled optical engine. I was a little surprised that they were actually working on this application rather than focusing on data communications. Turns out the same customers are interested in both. Fast forward to today and we find out why and it is fundamentally sensing application as the first target.