I ASKED ChatGPT AI===>>Zoom announcement: Session 3 will focus on supporting technologies from Alfalume, Lumentum, Poet, Scintil Photonics, and Senko... Can you give me a short characteristic of these five companies together with the AI’s assessment of market outlook and the key differences in comparison to POET............................. POET’s “best of breed” capabilities ...
ChatGPT said:
Here’s a clear and concise update to your Zoom quote and request, with a brief profile of each company in Session 3, their market positioning, and how POET differs or stands out:
?? Quote from LightCounting’s CPO Zoom Announcement:
“Session 3 will focus on supporting technologies from Alfalume, Lumentum, POET Technologies, Scintil Photonics, and Senko.”
?? Company Profiles & Market Outlook 1. Alfalume - Focus: Ultra-low-power optical links for AI/ML compute fabrics.
- Tech: Leveraging integrated photonics and novel optical packaging for in-package or near-package interconnects.
- Outlook: Niche but potentially high-growth as AI/ML clusters demand more efficient, short-reach connectivity.
- Compared to POET: Alfalume is early-stage, narrow in scope; POET offers broader modularity and proven manufacturability.
2. Lumentum ($LITE) - Focus: Tier-1 supplier of optical components for telecom and datacom (including EMLs, lasers, VCSELs).
- Tech: Dominant in pluggables and coherent optics; vertically integrated supply chain.
- Outlook: Strong legacy business but slower to pivot toward disruptive packaging like CPO.
- Compared to POET: Lumentum sells individual components; POET integrates multiple components onto a single interposer, enabling smaller, cheaper optical engines.
3. POET Technologies - Focus: Photonic packaging IP and optical engines using modular interposers (Si/InP hybrid).
- Tech: Enables low-cost, scalable assembly of transceiver and AI interconnect solutions (e.g., Blazar, LightBar).
- Outlook: Positioned as an “arms dealer” to the AI/datacom optics industry, with explosive upside from partner traction (Celestial AI, Mitsubishi, Broadcom, etc.).
- Best-of-Breed Edge:
- No in-house fab (fab-light model).
- Passive alignment—reduces cost and complexity.
- Proven in both transceivers and AI accelerators (CPO/near-packaged optics).
4. Scintil Photonics - Focus: Monolithic integration of III-V lasers and silicon photonics.
- Tech: Laser-on-chip designs for ultra-compact coherent optics.
- Outlook: Promising tech for long-term integration, but challenges remain around heat dissipation, reliability, and yield.
- Compared to POET: Scintil’s monolithic strategy is elegant but high-risk; POET opts for heterogeneous integration, allowing better flexibility and thermal isolation.
5. Senko Advanced Components - Focus: Passive optical components, connectors, and fiber management systems.
- Tech: Leading provider of fiber connectivity for datacenters and telecoms.
- Outlook: Stable demand as optical ports increase, but not in the value-add zone of photonic packaging or AI systems.
- Compared to POET: Senko operates at the edge of the optical network; POET plays in the core of the opto-electronic interface stack.
?? Summary: Why POET Stands Out - POET’s optical interposer is the only proven, fab-light, modular packaging platform that can:
- Scale across 100G–1.6T architectures.
- Integrate EMLs, lasers, modulators, drivers, and photodetectors in one package.
- Work across datacom, AI accelerators, and potentially quantum networks.
- Its platform approach makes it more like ARM for photonics than a traditional component maker.
POET is not competing with Lumentum or Scintil for parts—but enabling them (and others) to go to market faster, cheaper, and smaller. |
