Interesting read Morning Star, I’ve cherry picked a few key points which really demonstrate (IMO) how well positioned we are.

“At the link level, it is widely accepted that to achieve the required bandwidth density for the data center, the trend is towards onboard silicon photonics with 2.5D integration on a multichip module (MCM) [Fig. 1(e)] or with more advanced 3D integration using through silicon vias (TSVs) [Fig. 1(f )] for higher band- width and considerable energy savings compared to pluggable optics [26,27].”

Completed by POET

“The Integrated Photonics System Roadmap-International (IPSR-I) is developing a common roadmap for low-cost, high-volume manufacturing of photonics for data and telecommunications systems [30]. Given the requirement for high bandwidth density at low cost and power consumption, it is not surprising that silicon photonics, fabricated in high-volume CMOS-compatible foundries [31,32], is a prime candidate for the inter-connection network. Among the key findings are that by 2020, there should be early deployment of “2.5-D” integrated photonic technologies, packages in which chips are placed side by side and interconnected through an interposer or substrate. By 2025, there should be pervasive deployment of wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) interconnects and the beginnings of commercial chip-to-chip intra-package photonic interconnects. In agreement with interconnect industry trends, the roadmap shows requirements of links to 1 Tbps on boards and 1–4 Tbps within a module by 2020.  For the short ∼ cm distance links on the modules, the energy target is on the order of 0.1 pJ/bit.”

POET on track to meet IPSR-I 2020 roadmap target for 2.5D technologies, and look to be way ahead of the curve on the expectation for pervasive deployment of WDM intra-package photonics interconnects by 2025.  Is quite possible they’ll be working towards Tbps modules in 2020 or shortly thereafter.

“Optical transceivers are the fundamental building blocks of optical interconnects. Although all optical communication links have components fulfilling the same basic functions (light source, modulator, photodetector), the specific devices implemented depend on the application and economic considerations. For reliability and short-term development, it would be advantageous to use mature commercially available technologies. However, for intra-data-center networks, low cost (including energy costs) is a primary criterion.”

Check, POET solution cheap to make, cheap to run, uses highly scalable mature manufacturing process, etc. etc.

After reading through the article and taking another look at POET’s technology background presentation, one can see Suresh and co. have a very clear understanding of what industry needs, and have made considerable progress advancing the technology in order meet those needs.