Pitch for POET Technologies Inc.
POET Technologies Inc. is the developer of next-generation Gallium Arsenide (“GaAs”) semiconductor device technology called POET (Planar Opto-Electronic Technology). POET is a platform that allows for the integration of optics and electronics on a single chip. This offers a next-generation breakthrough in cost & performance for commercial and consumer products. POET immediately addresses the requirements of numerous military development and procurement programs for sensors, communications and computing. POET Technologies owns 34 patents and has 7 patents pending that protect the IP behind the platform that Dr. Geoffrey Taylor has been developing for over 20 years of research at the University of Connecticut (UConn).
(See more information below!)
POET Technologies Inc. complete Trade Information:
What Does “POET” Mean? What Does “PET” Mean?
“POET” = “Planar Opto-Electronic Technology”.
• POET is a revolutionary Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) process used to build electrical, optical, and electro-optical integrated circuits.
• Supports a full range of electrical and optical active and passive circuit components.
• Very high performance versus existing silicon (up to 100x faster).
• Very low power consumption versus existing silicon (up to 95% less).
• Much more versatile than legacy compound semiconductor processes (GaAs, InP, others).
• Can be manufactured using existing CMOS chipmaking equipment.
• Fully compatible with existing semiconductor design and manufacturing flows.
• Will allow unprecedented integration into a single chip of functions that take entire chipsets today for large component cost reduction, and (particularly for optics) tremendous (e.g. 80%) reduction in assembly and test costs.
"PET“ = Planar Electronic Technology”.
• PET is the electrical subset of the full POET process.
• Can support CMOS, Bi-CMOS, and Bipolar device fabrication.
• Offers lower cost, simpler process/fab options for applications that don’t require optical feature set.
POET’s benefits are analogous to the benefits of the first silicon integrated circuits:
• Eliminate connectors, solder joints, assembly and multiple packaging steps.
• Decrease size, cost, complexity and power.
• Increase performance and reliability.
• Create a path for future improvements and scaling.
• Board-to-board, chip-to-chip optics with low-cost integrated transceivers.
• Substantial increase in chip I/O bandwidth with reduced power using integrated wavelengthdivision multiplexing.
• A higher speed and lower power complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) with integrated serializer/deserializer & clock data recovery (SERDES & CDR).
• Novel high-density universal memory, Optical RF generation, RF photonic filtering, Optoelectronic low-jitter clock generation and on-chip optical distribution, OE computing and new architectures based on O&E combinations (e.g. quantum computing).
3rd Party Independent Validation of POET:
• POET Technologies partners with an international defense services company that is a global leader in military electronic systems design, development, manufacturing and integration.
• Funded by AFRL, POET entered into a contract with 3rd party partner in 2008 with the intent of replicating a specific POET device in a 3rd party MIL Spec. environment.
• The 3rd party partner has world-class GaAs research facilities and has numerous PhD researchers working on the continued development of POET.
• POET’s partnership has successfully reproduced the POET technology as published, by producing and testing the critical electrical elements of POET Platform sub-process steps for transistors. (see more in the "Third Party Valuation of its POET Technology" pdf.)
Ready At The Right Time:
CMOS Silicon Evolution Is Ending!
• Moore’s Law era 1960-2015?
• CPU/GPU execution unit speeds haven’t improved in over 10 years.
• Industry looking for new technology path.
• Packaging Techniques Have Not Improved OE Transceiver Cost.
• Various hybrid integration techniques like 2.5/3 D packaging, silicon photonics have not led to improved Opto-Electronic Transceiver costs.
• Single-chip transceivers needed for fiber to fully replace copper for system interconnect applications.
• Copper Cable Era For System Interconnect Is Ending.
• 1 Gigabit Ethernet system interconnect was and is mostly copper-based.
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet system interconnect was and is almost entirely fiber-based.
• Optical Systems Need More Lithography, Less Mechanical Assembly.
• Many optical systems that need aligned arrays of sensors and/or lasers cannot be built today due to mechanical assembly cost constraints.
• POET offers this alignment capability by means of lithography, dramatically lowering the cost of these products (IR sensors, holographic displays, etc.).
Applications:
• POET’s technology can surpass speed limits of widely used CMOS silicon chips and is much better positioned for stacking multiple chips to increase performance.
• A functional POET device may reduce the power consumption of laptops, tablets, smartphones, servers, and/or other electronic
devices by 80%.
• Leads to drastic reduction in device size and battery power consumption.
• Power reduction in commercial-scale server farms represents tremendous cost savings to companies like IBM, Google and Intel.
• In November 2011, Hewlett Packard announced that it is working with numerous chip manufacturers to create ultraefficient, low-energy servers aimed at companies running largescale remote computing operations such as Twitter and Facebook.
• POET can also produce an infra-red sensor for use in air, sea, ground, and space with sensitivity that is an order of magnitude
higher than existing technology.
Commercial Applications:
• CPU.
• Memory.
• CMOS.
• Servers.
• Processor to Processor Optical Interconnect.
Communication Applications:
• Smart Phones.
• Network (Cell Towers, LANs, MANs).
• Fiber to the Home (FTTH).
Defense Applications:
• Infrared Sensors (Uncooled – SWIR, MWIR, LWIR).
Integrated photonics and electronics for:
• Radar and Lidar.
• Communications.
• Displays.
• Hardened computers and memory.
• Microwave and millimetre wave power sources.
Other Applications:
• Active Optical Cables.
• Coherent laser arrays for pumps, industrial applications.
• Commercial UV/VIS/NIR cameras.
• Medical Imaging Devices.
Complementary Technologies:
2.5 D Packaging
• Refers to die-stacking where multiple chips are put in a single package; often used for memory devices.
3 D Packaging
• Refers to true multiple-chip packaging where devices can be assembled in any orientation to one another in the vertical or horizontal plane.
Silicon Photonics
• Typically involves a passive silicon substrate providing optical (and often electrical) interconnect between separate active devices attached to it.
Coherent Optics.
• Module-level tunable integrated optical circuits for DWDM optical networking applications.
Four Examples of POET Value:
CMOS Silicon:
• Final CMOS Si geometry (10/11 nm) is under development now; first production 2015?
• POET/PET offer about 100x speed improvement over CMOS silicon.
• POET/PET offer 10-100x power efficiency improvement over CMOS silicon.
OE Conversion:
• As example, current 10 Gigabit Ethernet transceivers use about 10 individually packaged ICs on a substrate in a die-cast housing; POET can reduce this to 1 individually packaged IC.
• Depending on application, POET can reduce overall OE transceiver cost by 60 to 90%.
Memory and Storage:
• Current memory types include dedicated SRAM, DRAM, and NVRAM devices.
• POET/PET memory cell can concurrently support all three memory types.
• Massive simplification at system level due to elimination of NVRAM backup/recovery.
• Much lower bit error rates than silicon-based memories (several orders of magnitude).
Sensors and Weapons:
• POET provides low-cost optical thyristor arrays that can be used as dual-mode sensor/laser arrays (same panel can find targets and destroy them).
• Main reason US Government funded research for so long (19 years and counting).
For more information read the Corporate Presentation Q3 2013 + Extensive DD collection below:
Short Term Goals September:
- The business development White Paper will be made available under Non-Disclosure Agreement (“NDA”) to potential prospective partners and IP Licensees only. (this was announced in the Pr of June 3rd, so this could be done already, or in progress [NDA?])
- 2 Milestones to be announced in Q3 2013, see picture below.
- Milestone #5; "3/4 Terminal Switching Laser Demonstration (POET lab)".
- Milestone #7; "Optical Thyristor-based Infrared Detector Array Fabrication and Validation (3rd Party Fab)".
- Milestone 7 could have a contract/license attached with the announcement of this Milestone, or thereafter (days, weeks, a month??).
From the Pr June 3rd "Once on-line wafer production begins, (after the repair of the MBE Molecular Beam Epitaxy, which was damaged by Hurricane Sandy), producing wafers for the continuance of the BAE Systems military IR Sensor proof of concept project due for completion later this year will take precedence."
"The POET platform is currently the basis for a number of key projects, including optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) devices for avionics systems, combined RF/optical phased arrays, optoelectronic directional couplers, and ultra-low-power random access memory (RAM)."
- As you can see above there are other key projects that form the basis for a contract/license, which can be announced any day now.
Mid Term Goals Q4 October - December:
- Just in case there are delay's in the Short Term projections they will then be done in the Mid Term Goals section...
- Contract/License and/or establishing one or more PDA's.
Board of Directors have endorsed the next phases of the Company’s commercialization plan put forward by the Special Strategic Committee (SSC) chaired by Executive Director Peter Copetti. The multi-pronged approach is based on discussions with potential industry partners and advisers regarding the Company’s two key markets consisting of the military and commercial sector that have been identified as potential early adopters of the POET platform. Currently, while POET’s incorporation in military projects is proceeding well, and should provide value in several key verticals, significant value exists in adapting POET for mass production within a commercial semiconductor fab environment. The Company must rapidly move to the next phase of its commercialization plan, which includes addressing feature size and scalability requirements for commercial fabs. The Board has therefore endorsed, and authorized the SSC to proceed on, these recommendations, including:
* Establishing a POET Development Alliance (PDA) – The Company will be establishing relationships with one or more industrial partners looking towards jointly adapting POET to commercial scale III-V implementation. Alliance partners will provide key input including intellectual assets, technical staff, manufacturing capability, and foundry resources. In addition to optimizing device parameters and yields, a near-term goal will be to establish comprehensive design rules and a device parameter library for POET, which will proliferate licensed designs in a POET device ecosystem.
* Drive for Reduction of Feature Size to 100-nm Range (100NM) – The Company will re-prioritize its technical roadmap by introducing specific milestones associated with reducing feature size from the submicronto the 100-nm range in scale, targeting 4Q2013 for that milestone. Consequently, the milestone for full optoelectronic integration on a single die will be re-scheduled to 2Q2014. Even without this full integration milestone, the 100-nm goal anticipates the cadence of commercial III-V foundry capabilities. This roadmap will focus the Company’s ODIS subsidiary on developmental work that will allow for scalable production within existing commercial fabs.
* Adoption of a Shareholder Rights Plan (SRP) – The Company will be structuring a special SRP to protect the potential value of the company, for all shareholders, during the period where discussions with potential partners may be taking place regarding PDA-related agreements, and as progress on the 100NM project continues.
“This move crystallizes the Company’s strategy for unlocking the value of our intellectual property,” said Mr. Copetti. “A development alliance with the right partners will definitely shorten time-to-market, and help evolve a design ecosystem for POET in the marketplace.”
Further SSC actions will be endorsed by the Board depending on the status of the above initiatives. Mr. Copetti added, “While the new feature-size milestone is a challenge given our commitment to projects in our delivery pipeline, I believe the POET team is more than capable of achieving this goal. There is no doubt that POET can demonstrate its n- and p-channel capability to be a viable and scalable complement to silicon CMOS.”
The Company’s proprietary POET platform has demonstrated monolithic fabrication of integrated circuit gallium arsenide (GaAs) based devices containing both electronic and optical elements on a single wafer.
By offering components with the potential for increased speed, density, reliability, and lower costs, POET offers the semiconductor industry the ability to push Moore’s Law to the next cadence level, overcoming current silicon-based bottlenecks, and potentially changing the roadmap for a broad range of applications.
- Completion of Milestone #8 "Demonstration of 100nm or below PET n- and p- channel device and ring oscillator (3rd party lab/line).
It is important to note that this time "(3rd party lab/line)" has been used instead of "(3rd Party Fab)"!!
This clearly indicated that by that time (+-Q4) that at least one PDA has been established, because a third party lab will have to do this validation. And the "line" part indicates that this can be done in mass-production.
- Contracts, Licenses & PDA's can be announced on any given day.
Keep in mind that the stock will be halted, under Canadian law, which also affects the ADR (POETF).
When a contract has $$ amounts attached to it the stock will open again on an adjusted basis, so for (swing) traders it can be dangerous if you sold your position just the day prior to a contract announcement... Just saying.
Long Term Goals Q1 & Q2 of 2014):
- Q1 2014, MS#9 "Integrated external modulator for Continuous Wave Laser Demonstration (POET lab)".
- Q2 2014, MS#10 "Full Integration of Electronical and Optical Devices on Single Die (3rd Party Fab).
- Again, Contracts, Licenses & PDA's can be announced on any given day. And as we near the completion of the revolutionary POET Platform it can also be that a (hostile) buyout is offered. Although this total buyout can also come prior to the completion of POET. One just has to take a very promising pharmaceutical company with several products in development as example, that is bought out prior to completion of its pipeline products. This can happen to POET Technologies Inc. as well. (See Monetization Options below.)
Monetization Paths:
Several Options to Monetize POET:
• POET is a research company, not a product company.
• POET/PET are ready to enter the commercialization process.
• No single company is currently active in all market areas where POET provides a best-inclass value proposition; syndicate needed to extract full value from technology platform.
Single Acquirer:
• This path would involve selling POET to a single (by definition large) 3rd party.
• Technology access/investment would likely be syndicated by acquirer.
• Relatively small number of viable candidates.
Multiple Acquirers:
• This path would involve selling POET to a syndicate (likely structured as a joint venture).
• Ideal syndicate would include members with market presence in all key areas related to POET commercialization.
Licensing:
• Certain specialized market segments might be best addressed by licensing all or part of the POET/PET technology to one or more 3rd parties for use in a given market.
• Can be complex with difficult-to-foresee implications for other activities.
* The Company is seeking to monetize the revolutionary POET platform as described above. In case its sold for $1 Billion this would equate to $5/share with Fully Diluted shares of 200 Million. (In Part 3 of the POET Presentation they expect to see +- $1 Billion).
Please read all the available information in this very extensive DD Collection, see Sticky Notes:
"Disclaimer"
I hold shares in PTK.V. I'm not compensated in any way for making this DD Collection/Pitch! The Due Diligence report/Pitch I compiled here must only serve for informational purposes, I am not an Investment Advisor, nor qualified in technical matters like the POET Technology, so this is not an offer to buy or sell securities in POET Technologies Inc.. Please contact your Financial Advisor, Counsel or Lawyer before even contemplating buying securities. Also, read all the available information on the homepage and the websites of SEDAR, SEDI, SEC, FINRA & OTCQX Markets etc and all other information one can find on the internet, or elsewhere. Trading and investing can be very risky, there are no guarantees! You have to take into consideration that you can lose all your money before you decide to take a position in this stock, or any other.
"I wish you all the best & feel free to distribute this Due Diligence report/Pitch for informational purposes..."
