What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2021-03-31 compared with 2020-03-16 · 217 added, 101 removed, 389 unchanged (45% of the section changed)

Lightwave Logic, Inc.

(the Company ) is a development stage company moving toward commercialization of next generation electro-optic photonic devices made on its P 2 IC TM technology platform which uses in-house proprietary high-activity and high-stability organic polymers.

is a development stage company moving toward commercialization of next generation electro-optic photonic devices made on its P 2 IC TM technology platform which uses in-house proprietary high-activity and high-stability organic polymers.

Electro-optical devices convert data from electric signals into optical signals for multiple applications.

Our differentiation at the device level is in higher speed, lower power consumption, simplicity of manufacturing and reliability.

We have demonstrated higher speed and lower power consumption in packaged devices, and during 2019, we developed new materials that promise to further lower power consumption.

We are currently focused on testing and demonstrating the simplicity of manufacturability and reliability of our devices.

We have demonstrated higher speed and lower power consumption in packaged devices, and during 2020, we made continued to make advances in techniques to translate material properties to efficient, reliable devices.

We are currently focused on testing and demonstrating the simplicity of manufacturability and reliability of our devices, including in conjunction with the silicon photonics manufacturing ecosystem.

We are initially targeting applications in data communications and telecommunications markets and are exploring other applications for our polymer technology platform.

Unless the context otherwise requires, all references to the Company, we, our or us and other similar terms means Lightwave Logic, Inc.

Unless the context otherwise requires, all references to the “Company,”

“we,”

“our”

or “us”

and other similar terms means Lightwave Logic, Inc.

Materials Development

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A polymer PIC is a photonic device that integrates several photonic functions on a single chip.

We believe that our technology can enable the ultra-miniaturization needed to increase the number of photonic functions residing on a semiconductor chip to create a progression like what was seen in the computer integrated circuits, commonly referred to as Moores Law.

One type of integration is to combine several instances of the same photonic functions such as a plurality of modulators to create a 4 channel polymer PIC.

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Another type is to combine different types of devices including from different technology bases such as the combination of a semiconductor laser with a polymer modulator.

Our P 2 IC platform encompasses both these types of architecture.

Our P 2 IC™

platform encompasses both these types of architecture.

Current photonic technology today is struggling to reach faster device speeds.

Our modulator devices, enabled by our electro-optic polymer material systems, work at extremely high frequencies (wide bandwidths) and possess inherent advantages over current crystalline electro-optic material contained in most modulator devices such as lithium niobate (LiNbO3), indium phosphide (InP), silicon (Si), and gallium arsenide GaAs).

Our advanced electro-optic polymer platform is creating a new class of modulators and associated PIC platforms that can address higher data rates in a lower cost, lower power consuming manner, with much simpler modulation techniques.

Our advanced electro-optic polymer platform is creating a new class of modulators such as the Polymer Stack ™

and associated PIC platforms that can address higher data rates in a lower cost, lower power consuming manner, with much simpler modulation techniques.

Our electro-optic polymers can be integrated with other materials platforms because they can be applied as a thin film coating in a fabrication clean room such as may be found in semiconductor foundries.

This approach we call Polymer Plus™.

Our polymers are unique in that they are stable enough to seamlessly integrate into existing CMOS, Indium Phosphide (InP), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), and other semiconductor manufacturing lines.

Glossary of select technology terms to provide you with a better understanding our Companys technology and devices:

Of particular relevance are the integrated silicon photonics platforms that combine optical and electronic functions.

These include a miniaturized modulator for ultra-small footprint applications in which we term the Polymer Slot ™.

This design is based on a slot modulator fabricated into semiconductor wafers that include both silicon and indium phosphide.

Glossary of select technology terms to provide you with a better understanding our Company’s technology and devices:

Electro-optic devices - Electro-optic devices convert data from electric signals into optical signals for use in communications systems and in optical interconnects for high-speed data transfer.

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Electro-optic materials are materials that are engineered at the molecular level.

Molecular level engineering is commonly referred to as nanotechnology.

Molecular level engineering is commonly referred to as “nanotechnology.”

Electro-optic modulators - Electro-optic (E/O) modulators are electro-optic devices that perform electric-to-optic conversions within the infrastructure of the internet.

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Our Company believes that the combination of less expensive manufacturing cost, ease of application, and better scalability, together with a lower cost of ownership due to marked less heat dissipation (requiring less cooling), will create enormous demand for our products.

Many companies early attempts at developing commercially reliable organic polymers were stymied due to the difficulty of creating organic molecules that could remain electro-optically active after being subjected to the high heat of semiconductor manufacturing temperatures (such as silicon CMOS, InP, GaAs etc.).

Many companies’

early attempts at developing commercially reliable organic polymers were stymied due to the difficulty of creating organic molecules that could remain electro-optically active after being subjected to the high heat of semiconductor manufacturing temperatures (such as silicon CMOS, InP, GaAs etc.).

These early attempts also encountered difficulty synthesizing materials that could withstand photochemical bleaching (loss of sensitivity to specific frequencies) and material degradation due to high operating temperatures.

Over the last several years, our Company has made various scientific breakthroughs that have allowed for the synthesis of proprietary organic polymer materials that can withstand extremely high process temperatures of 175 0 C.

Additionally, these materials have demonstrated photochemical stability, even after being subjected to tensor light for over 4,000 hours and exhibited little electro optic degradation even after 2,500 hours of continuous exposure to temperatures at 110 0 C exceeding typical commercial operating temperatures of approximately 85 0 C, as found in data center applications.

After successfully achieving material test results that either met or exceeded commercial requirements (subsequently confirmed by an outside entity), in late 2016, the Company began production of its first photonic prototype device, a ridge waveguide modulator .

Our First Product The Ridge Waveguide Modulator

exceeding typical commercial operating temperatures of approximately 85 0 C, as found in data center applications.

Our First Product –

The Ridge Waveguide Modulator

A ridge waveguide modulator is a type of modulator where the waveguide is fabricated within a layer of our electro-optic polymer system.

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and all-optical switches.

Electro-Optic Polymer Production Our Approach vs.

Electro-Optic Polymer Production –

Our Approach vs.

the BLA Approach

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Government Agencies, have attempted to produce high-performance, high-stability electro-optic polymers for high-speed (wide bandwidth) telecommunication applications.

These efforts were largely unsuccessful due, in our opinion, to the industry's singular adherence to an industry pervasive engineering model known as the Bond Length Alternation ("BLA") theory model, which none of our patented molecular designs rely upon.

The BLA model, like all other current industry-standard molecular designs, consists of molecular designs containing long strings of atoms called polyene chains.

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We understand from initial conversations with data center architects and designers that the temperature specifications that our materials achieve are compliant with their equipment design needs.

We are aware of other academic and commercial development effortssome by larger companies with vastly more financial resources than we possess.

However, we believe that no one yet has developed organic polymer materials that have demonstrated the combination of thermal stability, photochemical stability that can meet or exceed commercial specifications.

We are aware of other academic and commercial development efforts—some by larger companies with vastly more financial resources than we possess.

However, we believe that no one yet has developed organic polymer materials that have demonstrated the combination of thermal stability and photochemical stability that can meet or exceed commercial specifications.

Our Electro-Optic Photonic P 2 IC TM Device Approach

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Our research and development efforts over the last 10 years have yielded our Company an extensive patent portfolio as well as critical trade secrets, unpatented technology and proprietary knowledge related to our optical polymer materials.

Our intellectual property portfolio has expanded significantly over the last year as we are developing our P 2 IC into prototypes.

We actively filed technical utility patents over the past few years, and are currently in the process of readying a number of other inventions for formal filings in 2020 and 2021.

Our intellectual property portfolio has expanded significantly over the last year as we are developing our P 2 IC™

into prototypes.

We actively filed technical utility patents over the past few years, and are currently in the process of readying a number of other inventions for formal filings in 2021.

We expect to continue innovating with our P 2 IC platform for the next couple of years.

We had a number of patents issued over the past few months indicating that our technology is being recognized as being unique.

Also in 2018, we acquired the Polymer Technology Intellectual Property Assets of BrPhotonics Productos Optoelectrónicos S.A., a Brazilian corporation, which significantly advanced our patent portfolio of electro-optic polymer technology with 15 polymer chemistry materials, devices, packaging and subsystems patents and further strengthened our design capabilities to solidify our market position as we prepare to enter the 400Gbps integrated photonics marketplace with a highly competitive, scalable alternative to installed legacy systems.

In total, our patent portfolio consists of 56 granted patents that include 44 from the US, 1 from Canada, 5 from the EU, 2 from Japan and 2 from China.

Our materials patent portfolio has also strengthened significantly with the filing of additional new patent applications on our core Perkinamine molecular compounds as well as recent, innovative inventions that are expected to protect our P 2 IC polymer PIC platform from potential competition.

Our materials patent portfolio has also strengthened significantly with the filing of additional new patent applications on our core Perkinamine ™

molecular compounds as well as recent, innovative inventions that are expected to protect our P 2 IC polymer PIC platform from potential competition.

Included in our patent portfolio are the following nonlinear optic chromophore designs:

Stable Free Radical Chromophores, processes for preparing the same

Tricyclic Spacer Systems for Nonlinear Optical Devices

Anti-Aromatic Chromophore Architectures

Heterocyclical Anti-Aromatic Chromophore Architectures

Heterocyclical Chromophore Architectures

Heterocyclical Chromophore Architectures with Novel Electronic Acceptor Systems

Multi-fiber/port hermetic capsule sealed by metallization and method

Anti-Aromatic Chromophore Architectures  

Heterocyclical Anti-Aromatic Chromophore Architectures  

Heterocyclical Chromophore Architectures  

Heterocyclical Chromophore Architectures with Novel Electronic Acceptor Systems  

Multi-fiber/port hermetic capsule sealed by metallization and method  

Our strategic plan is to utilize our core proprietary technology and leverage our proprietary optical materials to be the core of and the enabling technology for future generations of optical devices, modules, sub-systems and systems that we will develop or potentially out-license to electro-optic device manufacturers.

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The 13,420 square feet Englewood facility includes fully functional 1,000 square feet of class 1,000 cleanroom, 500 square feet of class 10,000 cleanroom, chemistry laboratories, and analytic laboratories.

The Englewood facility streamlines all of our Companys research and development workflow for greater operational efficiencies.

During March 2018, our Company, together with our packaging partner, successfully demonstrated packaged polymer modulators designed for 50Gbps, which we believe will allow us to scale our P 2 IC platform with our Mach-Zehnder ridge waveguide modulator design as well as other photonics devices competitively in the 100Gbps and 400Gbps datacom and telecommunications applications market.

The Englewood facility streamlines all of our Company’s research and development workflow for greater operational efficiencies.

During March 2018, our Company, together with our packaging partner, successfully demonstrated packaged polymer modulators designed for 50Gbps, which we believe will allow us to scale our P 2 IC™

platform with our Mach-Zehnder ridge waveguide modulator design as well as other photonics devices competitively in the 100Gbps and 400Gbps datacom and telecommunications applications market.

We are currently fine-tuning the performance parameters of these prototypes in preparation for customer evaluations.

During June 2018, our Company Acquired the Polymer Technology Intellectual Property Assets of BrPhotonics Productos Optoelectrónicos S.A., a Brazilian corporation, which significantly advanced our patent portfolio of electro-optic polymer technology with 15 polymer chemistry materials, devices, packaging and subsystems patent and further strengthened our design capabilities to solidify our market position as we prepare to enter the 400Gbps integrated photonics marketplace with a highly competitive, scalable alternative to installed legacy systems.

Also, during June 2018, our Company promoted polymer PICs and Solidified Polymer PICs as Part of the Photonics Roadmap at the World Technology Mapping Forum in Enschede, Netherlands, which includes our Companys technology of polymers and polymer PICs that have the potential to drive not only 400Gbps aggregate data rate solutions, but also 800Gbps and beyond.

Also, during June 2018, our Company promoted polymer PICs and Solidified Polymer PICs as Part of the Photonics Roadmap at the World Technology Mapping Forum in Enschede, Netherlands, which includes our Company’s technology of polymers and polymer PICs that have the potential to drive not only 400Gbps aggregate data rate solutions, but also 800Gbps and beyond.

In August 2018 we announced the completion (ahead of schedule) of our fully equipped on-site fabrication facility, where we are expanding our high-speed test and design capabilities.

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Andreas Umbach.

The Advisory Board is working closely with our Company leadership to enhance our Companys product positioning and promote our polymer modulator made on our proprietary Faster by Design polymer P 2 IC platform.

The mission of the Advisory Board is initially to increase our Companys outreach into the datacenter interconnect market and later to support expansion into other billion-dollar markets.

The Advisory Board is working closely with our Company leadership to enhance our Company’s product positioning and promote our polymer modulator made on our proprietary Faster by Design ™

polymer P 2 IC™

The mission of the Advisory Board is initially to increase our Company’s outreach into the datacenter interconnect market and later to support expansion into other billion-dollar markets.

The Advisory Board members have each been chosen for their combination of deep technical expertise, breadth of experience and industry relationships in the fields of fiber optics communications, polymer and semiconductor materials.

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In addition, they possess operational experience with semiconductor and polymer businesses.

Also, in March 2019, our Company received the Best Achievement in PIC Platform award for our 100 GHz polymer platform from the PIC International Conference.

The award recognizes innovative advances in the development and application of key materials systems driving today's photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and providing a steppingstone to future devices.

Also, in March 2019, our Company received the “Best Achievement in PIC Platform”

award for our 100 GHz polymer platform from the PIC International Conference.

During the second quarter of 2019, our Company promoted its polymers at CoInnovate in May and the World Technology Mapping Forum in June.

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The World Technology Mapping Forum is a group authoring a photonics roadmap out to 2030.

In September 2019 at the prestigious European Conference on Communications (ECOC) in Dublin, Ireland, we showed measured material response over frequency and the resulting optical data bits stream on our clean technology polymer materials, the newest addition to our family of Perkinamine TM polymers, that meet and exceed of our near-term target speed of 80 GHz We also released data data demonstrating stability under elevated temperatures in the activated (poled to create data carrying capability) state.

We also released data demonstrating stability under elevated temperatures in the activated (poled to create data carrying capability) state.

In October 2019, we reported that energy-saving polymer technology is highlighted in the recently published Integrated Photonics Systems Roadmap - International (IPSR-I).

The roadmap validates the need for low-voltage, high-speed technologies such as ours.

In May 2020, we announced that our latest electro-optic polymer material has exceeded target performance metrics at 1310 nanometers (nm), a wavelength commonly used in high-volume datacenter fiber optics.

This material demonstrates an attractive combination at 1310 nm of high electro-optic coefficient, low optical loss and good thermal stability at 85 0 Celsius.

The material is expected to enable modulators with 80 GHz bandwidth and low drive power, and has an electro-optic coefficient of 200 pm/V, an industry measure of how responsive a material is to an applied electrical signal.

This metric, otherwise known as r33, is very important in lowering power consumption when the material is used in modulator devices.

This technology is applicable to shorter reach datacenter operators, for whom decreasing power consumption is imperative to the bottom line of a facility.

We considered this a truly historic moment—not only in our Company’s history, but in our industry–as we have demonstrated a polymer material that provides the basis for a world-class solution at the 1310 nm wavelength, something which other companies have spent decades attempting to achieve.

In July 2020, we announced the official launch of our new corporate website www.lightwavelogic.com, reflecting ongoing efforts to provide up-to-date information for investors and potential strategic partners.

The revamped website offers a clean, modern design integrated with helpful tools and investor relations resources, including a new corporate explainer video, to illustrate the target markets and advantages of Lightwave Logic’s proprietary electro-optic polymers.

In August 2020, we announced the addition of Dr.

Franky So, a leading authority in the OLED industry, to our Advisory Board.

So is the Walter and Ida Freeman Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University.

Previously, he was the Head of Materials and Device research for OLEDs at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, as well as Motorola’s corporate research lab in the 1990s.

So was an early researcher in electro-optic (EO) polymer modulators at Hoechst Celanese.

As a member of the Company’s advisory board, Dr.

So will work closely with management to enhance Lightwave’s product positioning for, as well as the promotion of, its polymer modulators made on its proprietary platform.

In addition, he will provide technical support and advisory services to the Lightwave materials and device teams.

On October 7, 2020 we announced the receipt of U.S.

Patent number 10,754,093 that improves both the performance and reliability of our high-speed, low-power electro-optic polymer modulators intended for datacenter and telecommunications applications.

The patent allows multi-layered electro-optic polymer modulators to perform more efficiently through the design of custom interfaces.

These interfaces are designed into the cladding layers that allow optical transmission, electrical conductivity, material integrity, as well as a prevention of solvents affecting adjacent polymer materials.

The net impact of all of this allows for our Company’s modulators to improve performance across the board, enabling higher reliability in the fiber optic communications environment.

On October 15, 2020, we announced that our proprietary polymer technologies are compatible with currently available integrated photonics platforms.

Our proprietary electro-optic materials are currently in the prototyping phase and are fabricated onto standard silicon wafers, and this Polymer Plus™

advancement, driven by the feedback our Company received from potential customers to-date, has allowed our materials to be suitable for additive integration to integrated photonics platforms such as silicon photonics, as well as indium phosphide and other standard platforms –

therefore enabling simpler integration by customers.

We believe this breakthrough allows a polymer modulator to enhance the performance of existing integrated photonics solutions in the marketplace, enabling higher speed and lower power consumption on foundry-fabricated photonics designs.

Since our technology is additive to existing platforms such as silicon photonics, our electro-optic polymers are not actually competing with integrated photonic platforms, but rather enabling them to be more competitive in the marketplace, and it further validates our EO polymer platform as ideally suited to enable optical networking more efficiently than ever.

On October 21, 2020, we announced that we have optimized a robust, photo-stable organic polymer material for use in our next-generation modulators intended to be trialed with potential customers under NDA.

Our materials show high tolerance to high-intensity infrared light, common in a fiber optic communications environment and increasingly important as higher density of devices access the network, directly resulting in higher intensity infrared light levels.

Our preliminary results suggest that our recently developed electro-optic polymer material, designed based on potential customer input, displays unrivaled light tolerance (also known as photostability) compared to any organic commercial solution in use today.

Our results meet both our current internal criteria and address potential customer feedback.

On November 2, 2020, we disclosed results on our polymer material stability testing including further results for electro-optic efficiency for our Company’s materials that operate both at 1550nm as well as 1310nm.

We demonstrated test materials results for electro-optic efficiency to 4000hrs, improvement in sensitivity to oxygen as part of a broadband exposure test, and stability for polymers exposed to 1310nm light at 100mW.

On November 20, 2020 we announced the receipt of U.S.

Patent number 10,591,755 that details an important invention that allows users of electro-optic polymer modulators to not only operate the devices with high speed and low power directly from CMOS IC chips, but gives them the opportunity to avoid the expense, physical footprint and power consumption of high-speed modulator driver ICs.

Furthermore, this patent strengthens our freedom of manufacturing, and directly enables our modulators to become more competitive in the marketplace.

On December 16, 2020 we announced the development of a new sealant for our future Chip-on-Board (COB) packaged polymer platform.

The sealant, which blocks oxygen and other atmospheric gases, is a key step in our Company's development towards a polymer modulator without a package, an important enabling technology for the industry.

We plan to develop the sealant for commercial implementation in our future modulators.

Recent results suggest that our electro-optic polymer sealant material displays encouraging barrier properties and is expected to translate to significant improvement in bare chip robustness against atmospheric gases, as compared to existing EO polymer commercial solutions in use today.

While the initial measurements are highly promising, our Company plans to continue development work to further optimize the sealant material and barrier performance towards the chip-on-board goal.

On January 13, 2021, we announced the receipt of U.S.

Patent number 10,886,694 that details an invention that allows electro-optic polymer modulators to be packaged in a hermetic environment using well-known, high-volume and low-cost fabrication processes that are available in a typical semiconductor fabrication foundry –

improving suitability for mass production.

Further, the design of this capsule package can improve both the reliability and the coupling interface between fiber optic cables and their laser sources for arrayed photonic integrated circuit solutions.

The package can also interpose signals from an underlying circuit board to the polymer modulators, lasers, and other components for data transfer.

The hermetic capsule is built from a semiconductor base that contains electrical and optical circuits and components.

A hermetic capsule chamber is created by the design of a semiconductor lid that is sealed to the semiconductor base platform by a metallization process.

Using standardized fabrication techniques we can now create a package that achieves the performance, reliability, cost, and volume requirements that has been a challenge for the photonics industry for years.

As we move forward to diligently meet our goals, we continue to work closely with our packaging partner for the 50Gbaud and 100 Gbaud prototypes, and we are advancing our reliability and characterization efforts to support our prototyping.

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Cloud computing and data centers

Big data is a general term used to describe the voluminous amount of unstructured and semi-structured data a Company creates -- data that would take too much time and cost too much money to load into a relational database for analysis.

Big data is a general term used to describe the voluminous amount of unstructured and semi-structured data a Company creates –

data that would take too much time and cost too much money to load into a relational database for analysis.

Companies are looking to cloud computing in their data centers to access all the data.

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Datacenters have grown to enormous sizes with hundreds of thousands and even millions of servers in a single datacenter.

The number of so-called hyperscale datacenters are expected to continue to increase in number.

Due to their size, a single datacenter may consist of multiple large warehouse-size buildings on a campus or even several locations distributed around a metropolitan area.

The number of so-called “hyperscale”

datacenters are expected to continue to increase in number.

Due to their size, a single “datacenter”

may consist of multiple large warehouse-size buildings on a campus or even several locations distributed around a metropolitan area.

Data centers are confronted with the problem of moving vast amounts of data not only around a single data center building, but also between buildings in distributed data center architecture.

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This allows a competitive cost per data rate or cost per Gbps metric to be achieved.

Fiber optic datacenter and high-performance computing customers want to achieve the metric of $1/Gbps @ 400Gbps (this essentially means a single mode fiber optic link that has a total cost of $400 and operates with a data rate of 400Gbps à which also means that each transceiver at each end of the fiber optic link must be able to be priced at $200), but as industry tries to match this target, it is already falling behind as can be seen in the Figure below which plots generic typical PIC based technology:

which also means that each transceiver at each end of the fiber optic link must be able to be priced at $200), but as industry tries to match this target, it is already falling behind as can be seen in the Figure below which plots generic typical PIC based technology:

In the above figures that forecast $/Gbps to 2025 (where the left-hand graph is a linear vertical scale, and the right-hand graph is a log scale), it can be seen that the orange curve plots the customer expectation, while the other color curves show $/Gbps improvement over time for various high-speed data rate transceivers using PIC based technologies.

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This is shown below how polymers have the potential to scale to the needs of the customers over the next 5years.

Some of the things needed to achieve the scaling performance of polymers in integrated photonics platform is within sight today:

Some of the things needed to achieve the scaling performance of polymers in integrated photonics platforms is within sight today:

Increased r33 (which leads to very low Vpi in modulator devices) and we are currently optimizing our polymers for this.

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Higher levels of hermeticity for lower cost packaging of optical sub-assemblies within a transceiver module, where our advanced designs are being implemented into polymer-based packages.

Scalability in terms of cost reduction and high volume manufacturing can be enhanced by:

Leverage of commercial silicon photonics manufacturing capacity.

Our Polymer Plus™

platform seeks to be additive to standard silicon photonics circuits.

Reduction of optical packaging costs by integration at the chip level of multiple modulators and also with other optical devices.

Our P2IC™

platform seeks to address device integration.

Business Strategy

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In order to meet this objective, we intend to:

Further the development of proprietary organic electro-optic polymer material systems

Develop photonic devices based on our P 2 IC TM technology

Continue to develop proprietary intellectual property

Grow our commercial device development capabilities

Grow our product reliability and quality assurance capabilities

Grow our optoelectronic packaging and testing capabilities

Grow our commercial material manufacturing capabilities

Maintain/develop strategic relationships with major telecommunications and data communications companies to further the awareness and commercialization of our technology platform

Continue to add high-level personnel with industrial and manufacturing experience in key areas of our materials and device development programs.

Further the development of proprietary organic electro-optic polymer material systems  

Develop photonic devices based on our P 2 IC TM technology  

Continue to develop proprietary intellectual property  

Grow our commercial device development capabilities  

Grow our product reliability and quality assurance capabilities  

Grow our optoelectronic packaging and testing capabilities  

Grow our commercial material manufacturing capabilities  

Maintain/develop strategic relationships with major telecommunications and data communications companies to further the awareness and commercialization of our technology platform  

Continue to add high-level personnel with industrial and manufacturing experience in key areas of our materials and device development programs.  

Create Organic Polymer-Enabled Electro-Optic Modulators

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We develop novel polymer materials utilizing our patented and patent pending technology to meet certain performance specifications.

We then develop methods to synthesize larger quantities of such material.

We conduct a full battery of tests at the completion of the synthesis of each new polymer material to evaluate its characteristics.

We also create development strategies to optimize materials to meet specifications for specific applications.

We model and simulate each new polymer material so that we can further understand how to optimize the material for device operation.

We integrate data from the material characterization and test results to fabricate devices.

We analyze device-testing results to refine and improve fabrication processes and methods.

In addition, we investigate alternative material and design variations to possibly create more efficient fabrication processes.

We create an initial device design using simulation software.

Following device fabrication, we run a series of optical and electronic tests on the device.

We have and expect to continue to make significant operating and capital expenditures for research and development.

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They include:

Ridge Waveguide Modulator

Ridge Waveguide Modulator, Polymer Stack ™

Our ridge electro-optic waveguide modulator was designed and fabricated in our in-house laboratory.

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We have multiple generations of new materials that we will soon be optimizing for this specific design.

In September 2017 we announced that our initial alpha prototype ridge waveguide modulator, enabled by our P 2 IC polymer system, demonstrated bandwidth performance levels that will enable 50 Gbaud modulation in fiber-optic communications.

In September 2017 we announced that our initial alpha prototype ridge waveguide modulator, enabled by our P 2 IC™

polymer system, demonstrated bandwidth performance levels that will enable 50 Gbaud modulation in fiber-optic communications.

This device demonstrated true amplitude (intensity) modulation in a Mach-Zehnder modulator structure incorporating our polymer waveguides.

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This preliminary result corresponds to 100 Gbaud data rates using a simple NRZ data encoding scheme or 200 Gbps with PAM-4 encoding.

With 4 channel arrays in our P 2 IC platform, the Company thus has the potential to address both 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps markets.

With 4 channel arrays in our P 2 IC™

platform, the Company thus has the potential to address both 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps markets.

While customers may start the engagement at 50 Gbaud, we believe potential customers recognize that scalability to higher speeds is an important differentiator of the polymer technology.

We believe the ridge waveguide modulator represents our first commercially viable device and targets the fiber optics communications market.

We believe the ridge waveguide modulator Polymer Stack™

represents our first commercially viable device and targets the fiber optics communications market.

We have completed internal market analysis and are initially targeting interconnect reach distances of greater than 10km.

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The market opportunity for greater than 10km is worth over $1B over the next decade.

Ridge Waveguide Modulator, Polymer Stack ™

Using the ridge waveguide design, we are developing a more compact modulator to be implemented directly with existing integrated photonics platforms such as silicon photonics and Indium Phosphide.

As our electro-optic polymers are applied in liquid form, they can be deposited as a thin film coating in a fabrication clean room such as may be found in semiconductor foundries.

This approach we call Polymer Plus™.

The advantage of this approach is that it allows existing semiconductor integrated photonics platforms such as silicon photonics and indium phosphide to be upgraded with higher speed modulation functionality with the use of polymers in a straight-forward and simple approach.

Further, our polymers are unique in that they are stable enough to seamlessly integrate into existing CMOS, Indium Phosphide (InP), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), and other semiconductor manufacturing lines.

A large majority of commercial silicon photonics platforms utilize large silicon photonics foundries such as those that manufacture IC products for a number of applications such as communications, computing, consumer, etc.

In order to seamlessly integrate our polymer materials to upgrade for example, silicon photonics designs, partnering with a silicon foundry is necessary.

Advanced Modulator Structures

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In addition, the waveguide structure was approximately 1/20 the length of a typical inorganic-based silicon photonics modulator waveguide.

With the combination of our proprietary electro-optic polymer material and the extremely high optical field concentration in the slot waveguide modulator, the test modulators demonstrated less than 2.2 volts to operate.

With the combination of our proprietary electro-optic polymer material and the extremely high optical field concentration in the slot waveguide modulator which is called Polymer Slot™, the test modulators demonstrated less than 2.2 volts to operate.

Initial speeds exceeded 30-35 GHz in the telecom, 1550 nanometer frequency band.

This is equivalent to 4 x 10Gbps, inorganic, lithium niobate modulators that would require approximately 12-16 volts to move the same amount of information.

We are continuing our collaborative development of our p olymer photonic slot waveguide modulators with an associated third-party research.

We are now designing slot modulators to operate at data rates greater than 50 Gbaud.

Our Long-Term Device Development Goal - Multichannel Polymer Photonic Integrated Circuit (P 2 IC)

Our P 2 IC platform is positioned to address markets with aggregated data rates of 100 Gbaud, 400 Gbaud, 800 Gbaud and beyond.

Our P 2 IC platform will contain a number of photonic devices that may include, over and above polymer-based modulators, photonic devices such as lasers, multiplexers, demultiplexers, detectors, fiber couplers.

We are continuing our collaborative development of our polymer photonic slot waveguide modulators (Polymer Slot™) with an associated third-party research.

We are now designing Polymer Slot™

modulators to operate at data rates greater than 50 Gbaud.

Our Long-Term Device Development Goal - Multichannel Polymer Photonic Integrated Circuit (P 2 IC™)

Our P 2 IC™

platform is positioned to address markets with aggregated data rates of 100 Gbaud, 400 Gbaud, 800 Gbaud and beyond.

Our P 2 IC™

platform will contain a number of photonic devices that may include, over and above polymer-based modulators, photonic devices such as lasers, multiplexers, demultiplexers, detectors, fiber couplers.

While our polymer-based ridge waveguide and slot modulators are currently under development to be commercially viable products, our long-term device development goal is to produce a platform for the 400 Gbps and beyond transceiver market.

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The roadmap shows a progression in speed from 50 Gbaud based ridge waveguide modulators to 100 Gbaud based ridge waveguide modulators.

The roadmap shows a progression in integration in which the modulators are arrayed to create a flexible, multichannel P 2 IC platform that spans 100 Gbps, 400 Gbps, 800 Gbps, and potentially 1.6 Tbps aggregated data-rate markets.

We showed bandwidths of polymer-based modulator devices at a major international conference (ECOC European Conference on Optical Communications 2018) with bandwidths that exceeded 100GHz.

The roadmap shows a progression in integration in which the modulators are arrayed to create a flexible, multichannel P 2 IC™

platform that spans 100 Gbps, 400 Gbps, 800 Gbps, and a scaling philosophy that will grow to 1.6 Tbps aggregated data-rate markets.

We showed bandwidths of polymer-based modulator devices at a major international conference (ECOC –

European Conference on Optical Communications 2018) with bandwidths that exceeded 100GHz.

We noted that to achieve 100Gbaud, the polymer-based modulator only needs to achieve 80GHz bandwidth.

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An all-optical switch is one that enables signals in optical fibers or networks to be selectively switched from one fiber or circuit to another.

Many device designs have been developed and commercialized in todays telecom networks to effect optical switching by using mechanical or electrical control elements to accomplish the switching event.

Many device designs have been developed and commercialized in today’s telecom networks to effect optical switching by using mechanical or electrical control elements to accomplish the switching event.

Future networks will require all-optical switches that can be more rapidly activated with a low energy and short duration optical (light) control pulse.

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Our previous relationships included:

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)

Properties Branch of the Army Research Laboratory on the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Maryland.

Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA)

Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, California

Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)  

Properties Branch of the Army Research Laboratory on the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Maryland.  

Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA)  

Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, California  

Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio  

Our Competition

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In fact, over the past 3 decades, the fiber communications industry has driven the increased performance, miniaturization and simplicity in packaging for PIC based technologies.

Also, back in the 1980s, optoelectronics was the key word to describe having both electronic and photonic functions or devices on a single chip.

Also, back in the 1980s, ‘optoelectronics’

was the key word to describe having both electronic and photonic functions or devices on a single chip.

This was known in early publications as an optoelectronics integrated circuit (OEIC).

Today optoelectronics is synonymous with photonics, and hence the common-place use of photonics integrated circuits for PICs.

Today optoelectronics is synonymous with ‘photonics’, and hence the common-place use of ‘photonics integrated circuits’

In the below figure, it can be seen in red that the incumbent technology for PICs is InP.

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InP main weakness from a function standpoint is that although it can provide HFETs, JFETs, bipolar electronic devices, it has not been able to successfully penetrate LSI, or VLSI with digital IC circuitry.

Chips such as ASICs are not practically available with the InP platform mostly due to advancement in electronic transistor design, and also through limited maturity in large format wafer manufacturing.

Today the majority of InP fabrication is based on 4 or 100mm wafers, and only in the past year have folks been seriously looking at 6 or 150mm InP wafer infrastructure.

From the photonics standpoint, there are very good reasons why InP is the incumbent technology it provides world class performance in lasers, modulators, simple electronics such as drivers and TIAs (transimpedance amplifiers), as well as highly performing active and passive devices such as SOAs, waveguides, spot-size converters, and mux/demux blocks such as AWG and Eschelle gratings.

Chips such as ASICs are not practically available with the InP platform –

mostly due to advancement in electronic transistor design, and also through limited maturity in large format wafer manufacturing.

Today the majority of InP fabrication is based on 4”

or 100mm wafers, and only in the past year have folks been seriously looking at 6”

or 150mm InP wafer infrastructure.

From the photonics standpoint, there are very good reasons why InP is the incumbent technology –

it provides world class performance in lasers, modulators, simple electronics such as drivers and TIAs (transimpedance amplifiers), as well as highly performing active and passive devices such as SOAs, waveguides, spot-size converters, and mux/demux blocks such as AWG and Eschelle gratings.

Over the past decade, the rise of silicon-based photonics has accelerated quickly (as can be seen in blue in the Figure).

Silicon has a huge history in electronics, and its been said by many that if the existing infrastructure could be utilized effectively, then the cost of producing photonics with similar fabrication, design, testing, and simulation tools, would become competitive with the current incumbent technology:

Silicon has a huge history in electronics, and it’s been said by many that if the existing infrastructure could be utilized effectively, then the cost of producing photonics with similar fabrication, design, testing, and simulation tools, would become competitive with the current incumbent technology:

As can be seen by the figure, silicon is capable of handling many photonics devices in addition to all electronic functionality with CMOS and BiCMOS based technologies.

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In this Figure applications range from fiber optic communications, self-driving vehicles, sensing, internet of things, bio-photonics, healthcare, industrial, military, high performance computing etc.

PIC technologies are based upon semiconductor wafers (such as III-V compound semiconductors InP, GaAs etc.) as well as silicon wafers (which can be tailored to become SiGe heterogeneous, SOI, etc.).

PIC technologies are based upon semiconductor wafers (such as III-V compound semiconductors –

InP, GaAs etc.) as well as silicon wafers (which can be tailored to become SiGe heterogeneous, SOI, etc.).

As these platforms are semiconductor based, the wafers are processed in fabs or fabrication facilities to produce devices.

As a general rule, silicon has the largest wafers with 8 (200mm) and 12 (300mm) format discs.

GaAs typically is running 3 (75mm), 4 (100mm) and 6 (150mm) wafers in production fabs or fabrication plants around the world.

There is an expectation that GaAs will eventually move to 8 (200mm) wafers in the next 5 years.

InP is in production today on 2 (50mm), 3 (75mm) and 4 (100mm) wafers with an expectation to move to 6 (150mm) in the next 5 years.

Heterogeneous solutions with silicon photonics that utilize materials such as SiGe and InP are typically 8 (200mm) and 12 (300mm) format wafers.

As a general rule, silicon has the largest wafers with 8”

(200mm) and 12”

(300mm) format discs.

GaAs typically is running 3”

(75mm), 4”

(100mm) and 6”

(150mm) wafers in production fabs or fabrication plants around the world.

There is an expectation that GaAs will eventually move to 8”

(200mm) wafers in the next 5 years.

InP is in production today on 2”

(50mm), 3”

(75mm) and 4”

(100mm) wafers with an expectation to move to 6”

(150mm) in the next 5 years.

Heterogeneous solutions with silicon photonics that utilize materials such as SiGe and InP are typically 8”

(200mm) and 12”

(300mm) format wafers.

Polymer photonics can be deposited on either III-V compound semiconductor wafers as well as silicon wafers which makes it suitable for the next generation of PIC based technological platforms for the fiber communications industry.

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Electro-optic polymers demonstrate several advantages over other technologies, such as inorganic-based technologies, due to their reduced manufacturing and processing costs, higher performance and lower power requirements.

Our patented organic polymers and future electro-optic photonic devices have demonstrated significant stability advantages over our known competitor's materials.

We believe the principal competitive factors in our target markets are:

The ability to develop and commercialize highly stable optical polymer-based materials and optical devices in commercial quantities.

The ability to obtain appropriate patent and proprietary rights protection.

Lower cost, high production yield for these products.

The ability to enable integration and implement advanced technologies.

Strong sales and marketing, and distribution channels for access to products.

The ability to develop and commercialize highly stable optical polymer-based materials and optical devices in commercial quantities.  

The ability to obtain appropriate patent and proprietary rights protection.  

Lower cost, high production yield for these products.  

The ability to enable integration and implement advanced technologies.  

Strong sales and marketing, and distribution channels for access to products.  

We believe that our current business planning will position our Company to compete adequately with respect to these factors.

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As a result, these competitors may:

Succeed in developing products that are equal to or superior to our potential products or that achieve greater market acceptance than our potential products.

Devote greater resources to developing, marketing or selling their products.

Respond quickly to new or emerging technologies or scientific advances and changes in customer requirements, which could render our technologies or potential products obsolete.

Introduce products that make the continued development of our potential products uneconomical.

Obtain patents that block or otherwise inhibit our ability to develop and commercialize our potential products.

Withstand price competition more successfully than we can.

Establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties that enhance their ability to address the needs of our prospective customers.

Take advantage of acquisition or other opportunities more readily than we can.

Succeed in developing products that are equal to or superior to our potential products or that achieve greater market acceptance than our potential products.  

Devote greater resources to developing, marketing or selling their products.  

Respond quickly to new or emerging technologies or scientific advances and changes in customer requirements, which could render our technologies or potential products obsolete.  

Introduce products that make the continued development of our potential products uneconomical.  

Obtain patents that block or otherwise inhibit our ability to develop and commercialize our potential products.  

Withstand price competition more successfully than we can.  

Establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties that enhance their ability to address the needs of our prospective customers.  

Take advantage of acquisition or other opportunities more readily than we can.  

We currently have 19 full-time employees, and we retain several independent contractors on an as-needed basis.

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The new 13,420 square feet Englewood facility includes fully functional 1,000 square feet of class 1,000 cleanroom, 500 square feet of class 10,000 cleanroom, 220 square feet of class 100 cleanroom, chemistry laboratories, and analytic laboratories.

The new Englewood facility streamlines all of our Companys research and development workflow for greater operational efficiencies.

The new Englewood facility streamlines all of our Company’s research and development workflow for greater operational efficiencies.

Legal Proceedings

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Also, this report includes the names of various government agencies and the trade names of other companies.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, the use or display by us of such other parties' names and trade names in this report is not intended to and does not imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any of these other parties.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, the use or display by us of such other parties'

names and trade names in this report is not intended to and does not imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any of these other parties.

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business