ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Dec. 19,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lightwave Logic, Inc.
(NASDAQ: LWLG), a technology platform company leveraging its
proprietary electro-optic polymers to transmit data at higher
speeds with less power, today issued a letter to shareholders from
its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Michael
Lebby.
Dear Fellow Shareholders,
2022 was highlighted by continued improvement and forward
movement of our polymer technologies, demonstrating world record
performances with our partners, running foundry process development
kits (PDKs), and solidifying our intellectual property moat with
issued patents with each technology enhancement. Taken together,
these improvements will enable an expedited near-term path to
commercialization through simplified manufacturing. At our
Annual Shareholder Meeting in May
2022 we outlined a number of yearly goals and we are pleased
to report that we are on-track with those goals as we enter 2023
energized and excited.
Commercialization Efforts with
Foundries and Partners
We achieved our goals with foundries in 2022 focusing on
'front-end' (a foundry term for chip fabrication and processing)
PDKs to fabricate polymer modulators onto silicon wafers. Not
only did we fabricate polymer modulators that resulted in great
performance, but we are also working with our foundry partners to
optimize modulator performance results. This will position us very
well for our goals in 2023. In 2022 we started working with
Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) for chip-scale packaging, and this
type of packaging can be completed using foundry 'back-end'
(foundry term for the preparation of chips for packaging) PDKs. As
noted in this update, we have moved quickly to position ourselves
strongly with ALD through focused patents, as well as a recent
acquisition of Chromosol's state-of-the-art ALD fabrication and
deposition process. Further, we are advancing our poling techniques
and processes toward full wafer poling. We are evaluating partners
for wafer-based fully automated poling that will be ideal for
high-volume production.
We continued working with our packaging partner in 2022 to
package our polymer modulators into traditional gold-boxes for
reliability testing and evaluation. This will continue into 2023
focusing on expanding our reliability data set, which is something
end-users in the data-communications industry are asking us to see
as a next step.
We have intensified our reliability testing and expanded our
laboratory space by approximately 9,000 square feet. We
continue to look for world class technical staff and have recently
hired multiple PhD level lab staff to focus exclusively on
reliability testing – all with the goal of expediting data sets
that are needed for commercialization with end-users. We expect to
have this data in hand during 2023, laying the foundation for
performance demonstrations in 2023.
We have initiated working with a fiber optic transceiver partner
in 2022 to explore the implementation of our polymer engine for
increased performance demonstrations in 2023.
On the commercialization front, we are deepening our
relationships with current partners, foundries, and end-users and
we are currently in discussions regarding potential commercial
agreements. In addition, we are concurrently engaged to conduct
performance demonstrations and traffic trails in potential
customers systems.
Breakthrough Results & World
Record Demonstrations
Throughout 2022 we achieved several record performances that
show third party review and verification of the stability and
high-temperature operation of our materials. We feel that to
demonstrate that our polymers can scale and have the potential to
be ubiquitous, they need to work and operate in third party device
designs, and still show world-class performance. We achieved this
level of performance twice in 2022.
Firstly, we achieved world record performance for a silicon slot
modulator using our advanced polymer material - all as part of our
collaboration with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and
SilOriX – clearly demonstrating that our materials can outperform
in a variety of device structures and designs. This allows our
platform to become a true 'green photonics' enabler for the
industry. The acceptance of a post-deadline at the 2022 European
Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) provided third party
validation of this significant result.
We also achieved a second world record demonstration with a
250GHz super high bandwidth electro-optical-electrical link through
another partner collaboration, this time using Polariton's
high-speed plasmonic modulators containing our proprietary
Perkinamine® chromophores and ETH
Zurich's high-speed graphene
photodetectors. Our incredible result demonstrates that our
electro-optic polymers will be instrumental not only for
next-generation high-capacity interconnects, but for the more
advanced and faster links that will be required for succeeding
generations over the next couple of decades.
Early in the year we announced breakthrough photostability
results on our electro-optic polymer modulators that are compatible
with high-volume silicon foundry processes. Our latest polymers
were subjected to rigorous optical testing and resulted in
performance increases that far exceed previous polymer material
designs. We then further enhanced photostability results on our
proprietary electro-optic polymer modulators - demonstrating the
reliability necessary for commercial deployments - all based on a
technology which can be ported into high-volume silicon foundries
and integrated onto a silicon photonics platform with other optical
devices. These photostability results demonstrate both the
compatibility with standard semiconductor manufacturing processes
needed for security of supply and the high reliability needed for
commercial deployments. Photostability is a metric customers ask
about frequently and we are now excited with the results achieved
and the impact we believe it will have with silicon foundries.
While we have not given guidance on all our technical and
business achievements in 2022, these major technical based
achievements reaffirm our view that our technologies are not only
vastly superior in performance but are simple to implement as well
- making them the right platform for next-generation optical
systems for years to come.
Intellectual Property and
Licensing
We received strong validation of our intellectual property in
2022 with multiple new patent issuances to strengthen our
portfolio. We secured a patent for a novel fabrication process to
advance high-volume foundry potential that enables stable, high
yielding poling of polymer devices with silicon photonics circuits.
This patent is exciting from a commercial standpoint as it enables
our polymers to be mass-produced using existing silicon foundry
equipment, simplifying production for the foundry's we are working
with. A second new patent was issued to simplify fabrication of
polymer modulators designed to integrate with silicon photonics to
enable enhanced internet traffic flow and reduced energy usage. A
third patent on an invention that will simplify modulator
integration for high-volume foundry manufacturing operations while
enhancing polymer reliability to enable a more effective photonic
engine was also received. We continue to file patents to strengthen
our position in areas of organic chemistry, polymer device
fabrication and design, and polymer device packaging.
Following up on the goals we set at our 2022 Annual Shareholder
Meeting, we have received interest from several parties to license
our polymer materials. As we look forward to 2023, we will continue
to review the business opportunities in both licensing the use of
our polymer materials as well as more deeply engage with our
partners for technology transfer. We expect to see our first
licensing agreement and potentially other exciting commercial
updates in 2023.
Most recently, we acquired the polymer technology and
intellectual property assets of Chromosol Ltd (UK) – significantly
strengthening our design capabilities for 'back-end' foundry PDKs
utilizing extremely low temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD)
processes that effectively hermetically seal polymer devices that
have been prepared for high volume manufacturing. The ALD
intellectual property acquisition will improve our back-end process
PDKs and allows us to achieve state-of-the-art low temperature ALD
process PDKs for chip-scale packaging of our polymer
modulators.
Enhanced Industry & Investor
Relations Presence
In 2022, we expanded our presence at key industry and investment
conferences worldwide. We were invited to present as part of the
2022 European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC), and we
were again invited to co-chair the Photonic Integrated Circuits
(PIC) International Conference as well as chairing ECOC's Market
and Product Focus sessions. We have also continued to participate
at the global IPSR technology roadmap conferences while leading the
data-communications and polymer roadmap committees. This has
allowed us incredible insight over the next decade into where
end-users are heading and what performance they are looking for
from polymer modulator technologies. We have received
numerous requests in 2022 for technical interviews, talks, as well
as technical articles on our polymer technology platform, and we
expect this to increase in 2023.
Throughout the year we presented at a record 7 investor
conferences, highlighting our achievements to institutional
investors and analysts. Awareness from institutional investors was
also elevated by our inclusion in the Russell 3000®
Index. Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and
institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for
active investment strategies.
2023 Goals and Final
Thoughts
Looking ahead to 2023, we see a significant cadence of likely
catalysts to drive forward long-term shareholder value creation.
First and foremost, we expect to see our first licensing agreement
for our polymers, in addition to world class performance
demonstrations that we expect will show end-users that our
technology is not only exciting, but will enable their business
models to be more competitive for optical networking and internet
system design.
There are significant additional milestones in the works that we
aren't yet ready to discuss, but taken as a whole, we are
incredibly confident in the direction of our business and in our
team's ability to make our next-generation technologies truly
ubiquitous in the global internet infrastructure of the future.
Sincerely,
Dr. Michael Lebby
Chief Executive Officer
About Lightwave Logic,
Inc.
Lightwave Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWLG) is developing a platform
leveraging its proprietary engineered electro-optic (EO) polymers
to transmit data at higher speeds with less power. The company's
high-activity and high-stability organic polymers allow Lightwave
Logic to create next-generation photonic EO devices, which convert
data from electrical signals into optical signals, for applications
in data communications and telecommunications markets. For more
information, please visit the company's website at
lightwavelogic.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
The information posted in this release may contain
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these
statements by use of the words "may," "will," "should," "plans,"
"explores," "expects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate,"
"project," "intend," and similar expressions. Forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated.
These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, lack
of available funding; general economic and business conditions;
competition from third parties; intellectual property rights of
third parties; regulatory constraints; changes in technology and
methods of marketing; delays in completing various engineering and
manufacturing programs; changes in customer order patterns; changes
in product mix; success in technological advances and delivering
technological innovations; shortages in components; production
delays due to performance quality issues with outsourced
components; those events and factors described by us in Item 1.A
"Risk Factors" in our most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q; other risks
to which our company is subject; other factors beyond the company's
control.
Investor Relations Contact:
Lucas A. Zimmerman
MZ Group - MZ North America
949-259-4987
LWLG@mzgroup.us
www.mzgroup.us
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SOURCE Lightwave Logic, Inc.