To POET Shareholders:

Following the AGM presentation, I have had several good questions coming in from shareholders, either to explain portions of the presentation made by Suresh or ones that just didn't get asked.  I will make an effort over the next week to publish some of these Q&A's for the benefit of all shareholders, or at the very least, for the Agoracom audience.  I will also work on an updated FAQ that we will post on the website within the next few weeks.

[Please note the following the intial posting of the AGM presentation it was modified to include the "Safe Harbor" side, so the slide numbers changed.]

Thanks for yoou attention and support.  Here's the first set of Q&A:

1) Where did the customer funnel go ? and the customer list, A, B, C, D, etc. Has it grown?

We had shown the updated customer funnel as part of our ongoing investor presentation  decks and we update that on a regular basis. We have sufficient customers in the Funnel.  For POET to make and outsized penetration - it is critical to have a few good customers that we will penetrate and execute to. Meaningful penetration will occur as a consequence of completing our qualifications.  This is the final phase of the commercialization process.  

We all could have hoped that customers would jump in and place all their POs ahead of this point.  But unfortunately they don’t work that way and as frustrating it is for you and us - we cannot control this.  

Customers have alternatives and they are risk averse as well.  It’s not like they have “nothing to lose” with adopting our completely radical approach to photonics assembly.  They are excited but cautious. We are trying to change how things have been done for 30 years.  It will happen but it takes time.  

There have been iterations to the design to enable customers to get to a finished module better, faster, cheaper.  And we are working with them hand in glove to get to production ramp sooner. 

2) Slide 8 (slide 9 in the reviesed version), 800G/1.6T FR4 Rx with TIA, "lead customer win", please elaborate? which kind of customer? what kind of win? win what?

For a new product like the integrated TIA version of 800G, it is vital to have an alpha customer - one who is committed to taking our first samples and taking them through the motions. We have such an engagement.  Once we have our samples out and functioning in their systems we will be in a position to make a public announcement of this.

 
3) Slide 8 (slide 9 in the revised versio), "active design in", please define, would a reasonable assumption be this leads to a order, leads to NRE?

We say active - meaning there is continuous module design activity ongoing to get to a final module product and one in which our engineers are working hand in hand with their engineers.  As part of these engagements we have received feedback for changes to our engines which we have implemented for our production release.  This is what a normal NPI (new product introduction) process looks like -  especially if you are not making the “final product” which in this case is a module. 

4) Slide 8 (slide 9 in the revised version), shows two products in production this year, which would imply that orders for product are expected?

We have to release our products for production.  That signifies that the fit, form, function, reliability and manufacturing processes for these modules are complete and frozen.   At that point - customer will either begin their module design process (and there are several customers in that camp waiting for us to convert our engines to production status) or in the case of the customers already designing modules - complete their final module verification with our “released products”.  

It sounds complicated - but that is the process the customers are going through.  We wish we could have PO’s ahead of having a product completed — but for the majority of the customers this is not the case.  

For our light bars and also for the quad engines we are building for our European customer there are already POs. 

5) slide 8 (9 in the revised version), what do the orange vs. blue squares mean?

Orange boxes are receivers, Blue boxes are Transmitters or Transmitter plus receiver. 

6) Slide 7 (slide 8 in the revised version), when discussing Lithium Niobate, is this in collaboration with Liobate Technologies which was already announced. Is this collaboration still active?

Yes.  and there are a number of additional companies who have enquired about our platform to further their own business with the modulators.  
We have had so many enquiries for engagement across so many markets - it is honestly been very difficult for us to engage as a small team of 40 engineers and technicians. 
We are over stretched and we have deliver more than 15 products over the next 12 months. 

7) Is the engagement with Wavetek, SiLux, still active, never recall mentioned again after the initial NR?

Wavetek was an engagement we did for the GaAs technology.  This engagement was terminated in 2017. We have a relationship with Siluxtek -  but they were late in delivering us their modulator solution for 400G which delayed our roadmap by at least 8 months.  This was partially due to the complete shutdowns in Shanghai, where they are located. Consequently we are deprioritizing that activity and focusing on our DML platform and working with large and highly reputed suppliers.  And we are making a lot of progress with the lithium niobate solution also. 

8) Perhaps POET's share in SPX could be leveraged as a finance mechanism. POET's makes it's money selling the OI to SPX. Sanan may jump at the opportunity to increase it's stake.

This is one of the options we are working on actively.