News: Optoelectronics
6 October 2021
POET announces design win and purchase order for 100G CWDM4 and 100G LR4 optical engines
POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada — a designer and developer of the POET Optical Interposer and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for the data-center and telecom markets — has secured a commitment from a leading network systems company for a unique multi-engine design for 100G CWDM4 and 100G LR4 optical engines based on the POET Optical Interposer. The combined value of the NRE (non-recurring engineering) and the purchase order for initial units exceeds US$1.2m.
“We have been engaged with this customer for several months on a breakthrough design to incorporate multiple optical engines in a single industry-standard transceiver module, something that only a POET Optical Interposer-based engine can enable,” says president & general manager Vivek Rajgarhia. “The LR4 product is directed at the client side of major telecom networks, using rigorous standards for data communication between a transport network backbone to data centers and customer locations globally,” he adds. “Our customer is already selling into the well-established telecom equipment market and, with the POET Optical Engines, will be able to offer a solution to its customers that delivers superior performance at a price that cannot be matched today by competing solutions.”
In September 2020, forecasting firm LightCounting noted an increased demand for 100G LR4 transceiver modules with a 10km reach, reversing its previous revenue forecast of a flat $300m annually to one that increased in the 2020-2025 period to over $700m annually.
“Modules based on the POET Optical Engine can deliver the equivalent of 200-400G speeds using the established 100G technology that has met standards preferred by major telcos,” Rajgarhia says. “Our small form factor, including monolithically integrated mux and demux, are unique to POET. In CWDM4, and especially in a LR4 optical engine, our full integration and small form factor yield strong performance and cost advantages,” he adds. “We believe that this customer engagement represents a major market opportunity and demonstrates all of the key benefits of the POET Optical Interposer platform.”
The commitment from a tier-1 customer and the numerous other recent customer engagements show that a market is building for the Optical Interposer’s hybrid integration approach, and multiple product designs can benefit from POET’s unique platform solution, says the firm.
POET also reported that its unaudited cash balance at 30 September stood at about US$20m. Additionally, it reported that the majority of the C$0.52 warrants, expiring on 2 November, had been exercised during their five-year lifetime. About 11 million warrants with a value of US$4.5m remain outstanding and unexercised.
POET launches products and Optical Interposer platform in China
POET ships first optical engine samples to customers
POET sampling 100G and 200G CWDM4 Optical Interposer-based engines from early July
