News: Optoelectronics
12 September 2024
POET streamlines global engineering organization in response to AI market demand
POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada — designer and developer of the POET Optical Interposer, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and light sources for the data-center, telecom and artificial intelligence (AI) markets — has announced a reorganization of its engineering team to streamline design, component engineering and new product introduction (NPI) activities globally, in response to active customer demand for 800G-and-higher products directed at the AI systems and hyperscale data-center markets.
While the major AI network and systems companies are located in North America and China, almost all module makers — including POET’s existing customers for optical engines — are located in China, Taiwan and other Asia Pacific countries. To better serve these and other customers, POET has established a Global Engineering Organization based in Singapore, led by Dr Mo Jinyu, senior VP, with the new product introduction (NPI) and component engineering teams reporting to her.
NPI is responsible for taking optical engine and module products from prototype design to initial manufacturing, coordinating with the product design and production teams along the way. All of these functions benefit from tight integration and geographic proximity. Critical product design and architecture, key customer relationships, global marketing & sales, and intellectual property management all continue to remain centered in California’s Silicon Valley, while POET’s finance, investor relations and other administrative functions are managed from its headquarters in Toronto.
As a result of this reorganization, the functions of engineering design and manufacturing interface — previously managed by POET’s Allentown, PA organization — will be transferred to POET’s Shenzhen operation, with other functions being transferred to Singapore. Compared to its annualized spend at the beginning of the year, the annual savings realized from the closing of Allentown on or before 31 March 2025 will be US$1.8–2m annually, with one-time costs estimated to be about US$250,000.
“Now that the company has a strong balance sheet, we can now confidently plan for our future, by streamlining the organization with a laser focus on securing design wins, delivering products and taking volume production orders from customers.” says chairman & CEO Dr Suresh Venkatesan. “We fully expect that the partnerships and customers that we have announced over the past few months will mature into module designs that will qualify with end users and convert to optical engine revenue later this year and into 2025, with ultra-high growth in the years to follow.”
POET opens product design and development center in Shenzhen
