5 April 2016

POET demos resonant cavity detector performance exceeding best-in-class

POET Technologies Inc of San Jose, CA, USA — which has developed the proprietary planar optoelectronic technology (POET) platform for monolithic fabrication of integrated III-V-based electronic and optical devices on a single semiconductor wafer — has provided updates toward key operational milestones and reaffirmed its confidence to prototype its first detector product by the end of 2016.

POET aims to commercialize its integrated resonant cavity detector as its first product and demonstrate this prototype by the end of 2016. Fabricated recently at the firm's foundry supplier, 6-inch detector wafers based on the POET platform demonstrated superior responsivity parameters relative to best-in-class performance, it is claimed.

The detectors differ from conventional devices in that they are resonant cavity designs, which enable greater sensitivity in detector applications. Benchmark parameters (such as responsivity) far exceed the performance of detectors currently on the market, it is claimed. At a bias voltage of 3.3V, POET detectors have demonstrated a room-temperature thyristor enhanced saturated responsivity of 13A/W at an input optical power threshold of less than 200mW and at an aperture of 10mm. This is about 20 times higher on a 3 times smaller device relative to typical 850nm PiN diodes. These results from the first set of detector wafers from the production foundry provide critical proof points for POET to introduce a differentiated detector product to the market later this year, the firm says.

Confirming a key milestone in validating POET's process technology transfer, multiple 6-inch wafer lots of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and transistors were also processed at the high-volume production foundry supplier. Testing and characterization of the devices is underway, and POET expects to require further development cycles through additional wafer processing to fully achieve the true potential for the integrated optoelectronic devices. 

"Over the next few months we plan to make additional announcements on our key milestones and device performance as we continue our aggressive drive towards commercialization of POET's highly differentiated technology," says chief operating officer Dr Subhash Deshmukh.  

Chief scientist Dr Geoff Taylor will be retiring (effective 30 April), in order to focus on recuperating from multiple surgeries. "Over the past several months I have been dealing with surgeries arising from complications with a knee replacement and therefore been unable to fulfill my duties," says Taylor. "The company is now on the verge of successful growth under its new leadership and I believe is well positioned to produce critical prototypes necessary for POET to be recognized as a leader in the data communications market," he adds.

"We expect to remain on-plan in the execution of our lab-to-fab commercialization initiative to achieve market success for the technology developed and nurtured by Geoff over the past several years," comments CEO Suresh Venkatesan. 

See related items:

POET's lab-to-fab initiative on track for product prototypes and initial market entry in 2016

Taiwan GaAs foundry Wavetek providing high-volume manufacturing services to POET

EpiWorks to manufacture epiwafers for POET's monolithic optoelectronics process platform

Tags: POET

Visit: www.poet-technologies.com