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Message: No Poetry? Tony Alfidi errs heavily on POET Technologies

Anthony Alfidi, Founder and CEO of Alfidi Capital, published a very negative blog post, titled "POET Technologies has no poetry". He does not allow for comments on his blog, so I am writing an answer here.

Alfidi makes a couple of wrong assertions, rooting in his fundamental lack of understanding of the POET technology. He doesn't understand why POET is superior optically, electronically, and with regards to integration.

  • Optics: Alfidi assumes POET is superfluous, because "[silicon] photonic integrated circuits (ICs) have been around for a while". He ignores the fact that while silicon indeed does have some optical capabilities and can guide light on its way through a chip, silicon cannot create light. This is due to silicon's indirect bandgap. Gallium arsenide has a direct bandgap and thus has superior optical capabilities, namely the capability to lase, to create laser light.

    Alfidi demonstrates that he is able to use Google to find sources from the 1980ies. I suggest he should use this capability to also google for that bandgap thingy. He should also look up how light is created in silicon photonics: by bonding (attaching) a hybrid laser made from III-V materials to the silicon chip, which is cumbersome and expensive. Monolithically manufacturing POET lasers avoids this.
  • Electronics: Alfidi assumes that "anything that's not quantum can add marginal capabilities but will not be a quantum leap". He bases his evaluation on "all of the guru talks I have attended at many tech conferences" and on the Wikipedia article about gallium arsenide. Yes, it's true that Wikipedia still states: "Because they lack a fast CMOS structure, GaAs circuits must use logic styles which have much higher power consumption; this has made GaAs logic circuits unable to compete with silicon logic circuits."

    However, Wikipedia and thus Alfidi neglect the fact that POET Technologies' Dr. Geoff Taylor has found a way to create just that: a fast CMOS structure for gallium arsenide, enabling GaAs CMOS and making electronics much faster at a much lower power consumption. This has completely escaped Alfidi's attention, so he is drawing the wrong conclusions.

    Attending technical conferences is a good idea. I suggest Alfidi to come to the CS International Conference in Brussels next year to listen to POET's Dr. Suresh Venkatesan explaining the POET platform. Should be revealing! Alfidi should also read articles like "Moore's Law Has No End in Sight" or "GaAs: The logical successor to CMOS", but he might consider both of them to be far too technical. Oh, well.
  • Integration: Alfidi completely misses the aspect of integration. The POET technology makes it possible to integrate optical, electronical, digital, and analog functionality monolithically on the same die. This means it can replace several chips by a single one, reducing the bill of materials considerably. I have already mentioned one of the applications in the optics section above. There's some material on the POET website about integration. I suggest Alfidi to look it up and study it. However, it might turn out to be somewhat difficult to find and difficult to understand. But that's Alfidi's problem, not mine. I am not here to spoon-feed him.

In summary, Alfidi demonstrates a bigheaded stance combined with a considerable a lack of technological understanding. What he is saying is basically this: "I have heard some gurus speaking, I have googled for photonics, I have read a Wikipedia article on gallium arsenide. Consequently, I am technologically versed now and know much more and much better than Dr. Geoff Taylor, Ajit Manocha, Dr. Suresh Venkatesan, and Dr. Subhash Deshmuhk. These guys have only spent their whole careers on semiconductors, so how should they know!"

Well, Alfidi has obviously fallen victim to the Dunning–Kruger effect. It's very clear how to evaluate his assessment! Where's the next bin?

PS.: It might have also escaped Alfidi's attention that POET Technologies has something in stock quantum-wise …

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