I meant to ask that question but the response I got was really good in terms of the ability of the dielectric to mode control very accurately. In other words X & Y alignment can be sloppy and still result in superior performance over existing products. (There was lots to  talk  about and I did not  want to slow it down.)

I  have done comparisons in the past on both insertion loss and transmission loss and no one comes close to  what POET can achieve. Characterisation is ongoing.

There is no reason for alignment to be sloppy (other than early flows). And “Z” accuracy (depth) is a non-issue. Pick and place tools are very accurate and I thought that solder reflow and the resulting end point placement could be an issue but it apparently it is not. And as far as managing refractive index deviation and resulting wavelength drift due to temperature it is greatly simplified by configuration.

All huge benefits. Of course the fact that it is at wafer-scale makes it very low cost.  

Add to that the fact that POET uses low cost 8 inch bulk silicon wafers (and there is a ton of low cost 8 in capacity).  Silicon photonics uses silicon-on-insulator (SOI) so material costs are much lower for POET in that regard as well.

I would have liked to spend more time on product development for on board optics applications…he is already considering programmable device applications which I believe enters into a much wider range of product versatility.

I was very impressed with his ability to explain things at whatever level you need him to be at. He is a huge addition to this company…no question about it.