In all seriousness if you look at how long it has taken Lightwave to demonstrate this modulator and how much further they have to go before they even have a facility for commercial production it points to just how quickly POET is moving in having not just a modulator but an optical engine for 100G in their own fab by mid 2018 using their own active devices. Not just the waveguide but integrated with the detectors and lasers that DL builds. And yet Lightwave has a much greater market cap without a product or even a roadmap that shows products in it.

Lightwave has been working on this for a long time and the old timers here will remember it being talked about years ago. Of course back in that day we were making comparisons to POET's GaAs platform as DL and BB were not even a glint in Suresh's eye. Heck Suresh was not even part of POET back then.

This statement by Lightwave gives you a snapshot of where they are:

During 2018, we will be compiling a detailed device specifications-sheet to present to several interested parties. Recall that our objective here is to attract an industry partner with the synergistic capabilities necessary to help develop future products that will utilize form factors that would be virtually impossible to achieve with existing legacy technology.

And of course Michael Lebby is friend to POET as he continues to highlight both the dielectric and polymer photonics as the way in which costs will be reduced towards industry targets.

http://b2icontent.irpass.cc/2252/172001.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=1Y51NDPSZK99KT3F8VG2&Expires=1515139309&Signature=L675WUR5F2AYHQEdcv2hjS%2FWmfM%3D

Makes you wonder why he left “dielectric” in his corporate presentation.

My understanding: As we know polymer does not like higher temperatures.so tighter environmental temperature control is required for thermal stability. The dielectric has good thermal stability with very low refractive index change over a wide temperature range and it is highly reliable.

It is Interesting to note that BB photonics waveguide design does employ a thin layer of polymer (external to the actual waveguide).