Lightwave Logic, Inc., a technology platform company, leverages its proprietary engineered electro-optic (EO) polymers, named Perkinamine to transmit data at higher speeds with less power in a small form factor.
The company’s high activity and high stability organic polymers allow it to create next-generation photonic EO devices that convert data from electrical signals into light/optical signals for applications in telecommunications, and for data transmission potentially used to support gener...
Lightwave Logic, Inc., a technology platform company, leverages its proprietary engineered electro-optic (EO) polymers, named Perkinamine to transmit data at higher speeds with less power in a small form factor.
The company’s high activity and high stability organic polymers allow it to create next-generation photonic EO devices that convert data from electrical signals into light/optical signals for applications in telecommunications, and for data transmission potentially used to support generative AI.
The company has demonstrated the electro-optic polymers' potential for higher speed and lower power consumption in packaged devices, and during 2024, it continued to make advances in techniques to translate the company’s world-class material properties to efficient, reliable modulator devices with commercial foundries. The company is focused on: working with potential and existing customers to integrate its proprietary materials into its customers’ specific PIC and device architecture; testing and demonstrating the superior performance, simplicity of manufacturability, and reliability of its devices, including in conjunction with the silicon photonics manufacturing ecosystem; and providing its potential and existing customers with the proper Process Development Kits (PDKs) to enable the efficient and fast integration of its materials into their own design and manufacturing plans. Silicon-based foundries are semiconductor fabrication plants developed for the electronics IC business that are now engaging with silicon photonics to increase their wafer throughput.
The company has now received silicon wafers that range up to 200mm in diameter, which aligns well with foundry manufacturing.
The company’s extremely strong and broad patent portfolio allows it to optimize its business model in three areas: traditional focus on polymer materials development, patent licensing, and technology transfer to foundries. The company is continually looking to strengthen its patent portfolio both by internal inventions and acquisition of intellectual property.
The company is initially targeting applications in fiber optic data communications and telecommunications markets, in particular, ultra-high bandwidth optical connections deployed inside and between datacenters and/or AI clusters. In addition, it is exploring other applications that include automotive/LIDAR, sensing, displays, storage, aerospace and defense, satellites, quantum computing, etc., for its polymer technology platform.
The company is designing high-performance polymer modulator optical engines to support the rise and growth of AI as it generates more information that will travel through the internet and optical network. While it is not directly an AI company designing electronic processors, it does see immediate benefits of enabling higher levels of information to cross the internet using its optical polymer modulator platform.
Materials Development
The company designs and synthesizes organic chromophores for use in its own proprietary electro-optic polymer systems and photonic device designs. A polymer system is not solely a material but also encompasses various technical enhancements necessary for its implementation. These include host polymers, poling methodologies, and molecular spacer systems that are customized to achieve specific optical properties. The company’s organic electro-optic polymer systems compounds are mixed into solution form that allows for thin film application. The company’s proprietary electro-optic polymers are designed at the molecular level for potentially superior performance, stability, and cost-efficiency.
The company’s patented and patent-pending molecular architectures are based on a well-understood chemical and quantum mechanical occurrence known as aromaticity. Aromaticity provides a high degree of molecular stability that enables the company’s core molecular structures to maintain stability under a broad range of operating conditions.
The company expects its patented and patent-pending optical materials, along with trade secrets and licensed materials, to be the core of and the enabling technology for future generations of optical devices, modules, sub-systems, and systems that it will develop or enable its partners to fully commercialize. Examples of the company’s partners include: electro-optic PIC and device design and manufacturing companies, contract manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, foundries, packaging and assembly manufacturers, etc. The company contemplates future applications in market verticals that may address the needs of semiconductor companies, optical network companies, Web 2.0/3.0 media companies, high-performance computing companies, telecommunications companies, aerospace companies, automotive companies, as well as, for example, government agencies and defense entities.
Device Design and Development
Electro-optic Modulators
The company designs its own proprietary materials for electro-optical modulation devices. Electro-optical modulators convert data from electric signals into optical signals that can then be transmitted over high-speed fiber-optic cables. The company’s modulators are electro-optic, meaning they work because the optical properties of the polymers are affected by electric fields applied by means of electrodes.
The company’s modulator devices, enabled by its 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 bulk lithium niobate (LiNbO3), indium phosphide (InP), silicon (Si), and gallium arsenide (GaAs). The company’s advanced electro-optic polymer platform is creating a new class of modulators that can be easily integrated into various PIC platforms and can address higher data rates in a lower cost, lower power-consuming manner, smaller footprint (size), with much simpler data encoding techniques. The company’s electro-optic polymer material will boost the performance of standard PIC platforms, such as silicon photonics and indium phosphide.
The company’s 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 using standard clean room tooling. These approaches enable the company’s device platforms to not only be competitive but fully integrated with foundries. The company’s 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. Of 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 the company terms the Polymer Slot. This design is based on a slot modulator fabricated into semiconductor wafers that can include either silicon or indium phosphide.
The company has a fabrication facility in Colorado to apply standard fabrication processes to its electro-optic polymers, which create modulator devices. While the company’s internal fabrication facility is capable of manufacturing modulator devices, it has partnered with commercial silicon-based fabrication companies that are called foundries who can scale its technology with volume quickly and efficiently. The process recipe for fabrication plants or foundries is called a ‘process development kit’ or PDK. The company is currently working with commercial foundries to implement its electro-optic polymers into accepted PDKs by the foundries. One of the metrics for successful implementation of PDK is to receive working modulator chips.
Glossary
Glossary of select technology terms to provide a better understanding of the 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.
Electro-optic material - Electro-optic material is the core active ingredient in high-speed fiber-optic telecommunication systems. Electro-optic materials are materials that are engineered at the molecular level. 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. Data centers may also benefit from this technology through devices that could significantly increase bandwidth and speed while decreasing costs. Polymer E/O modulators can be designed and fabricated with multiple structures. The waveguides allow the light to be efficiently coupled into and out of the modulators, and provide a basis for integrating modulators together.
Gbaud - The rate of symbol changes in data transmission in billions of symbol changes per second. Each symbol can support one or more bits, the number of bits depending on the modulation format.
NRZ – See PAM2.
PAM2 – 2 level Pulse Amplitude Modulation, a modulation format in which the optical power in each symbol can assume either of two different levels, low or high, representing, respectively, a 0 or a 1. PAM2 supports 1 bit per symbol so the bit rate is equal to the baud rate or symbol rate. For example, a modulator capable of supporting 100 Gbaud can transmit 100 Gbps with PAM2 modulation. This modulation format is often called NRZ (Non Return to Zero).
PAM4 - 4 level Pulse Amplitude Modulation, a modulation format in which the optical power in each symbol can assume any one of 4 different levels. PAM4 supports 2 bits per symbol so the bit rate is equal to two times the baud rate or symbol rate. For example, a modulator capable of supporting 100 Gbaud can transmit 200 Gbps with PAM4 modulation.
PAM8 - 8 level Pulse Amplitude Modulation, a modulation format in which the optical power in each symbol can assume any one of 8 different levels. PAM8 supports 3 bits per symbol so the bit rate is equal to three times the baud rate or symbol rate. For example, a modulator capable of supporting 100 Gbaud can transmit 300 Gbps with PAM8 modulation.
Photonic Devices - Photonic devices are components for creating, manipulating, or detecting light. This can include modulators, laser diodes, light-emitting diodes, solar and photovoltaic cells, displays, and optical amplifiers. Other examples are devices for modulating a beam of light and for combining and separating beams of light of different wavelengths.
Polymers - Polymers, also known as plastics, are large carbon-based molecules that bond many small molecules together to form a long chain. Polymer materials can be engineered and optimized using nanotechnology to create a system in which unique surface, electrical, chemical, and electro-optic characteristics can be controlled. Materials based on polymers are used in a multitude of industrial and consumer products, from automotive parts to home appliances and furniture, as well as, scientific and medical equipment.
Electro-Optic Photonic P2IC Device Approach
The company’s electro-optic device designs are built around its proprietary organic polymer material systems that will enable better performance than the current embedded legacy technology built around inorganic materials. Polymer photonics is the application of polymers onto a platform, such as silicon where there are both active and passive photonic component designs. In polymer photonics, polymer devices, such as modulators, waveguides, and multiplexers can be fabricated onto a silicon platform that acts as a package, as well as a base for mounting lasers (which are needed to source the light). The company continues to invest in R&D and process development to help accelerate the adoption of its polymer materials by potential customers into their own PIC platforms, typically based on silicon photonics.
The company’s initial device, though highly miniaturized, utilizes conventional design and fabrication techniques in the industry. The company’s future device designs will utilize silicon photonics (SiPh) technology, which can support highly miniaturized slot waveguide structures etched in large format (200mm), low cost, and less expensive silicon wafers coated with its organic electro-optic polymers. The low-cost structure compares well to compound semiconductor technologies, such as GaAs (Gallium arsenide) and InP (Indium Phosphide), which suffer from small format wafers that do not allow the economies of scale in high-volume fabrication plants. The degree of miniaturization possible of the slot modulator using SiPh is not technically feasible to accomplish with inorganic crystalline materials. Although this may not always remain the case, presently there are nearly insurmountable technical difficulties that are inherent to a crystalline molecule. The company now has the capability to model, simulate, and design photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in-house.
Intellectual Property
The company has actively filed technical utility patents and is currently in the process of readying a number of other inventions for formal filings in 2025 and 2026.
In 2018, the company acquired the polymer technology intellectual property assets of BrPhotonics Productos Optoelectrónicos S.A., a Brazilian corporation, which significantly advanced its patent portfolio of electro-optic polymer technology with 15 polymer chemistry materials, devices, packaging, and subsystems patents and further strengthened its design capabilities to solidify its market position as it prepares to enter the 400Gbps integrated photonics marketplace with a highly competitive, scalable alternative to installed legacy systems.
In 2022, the company acquired the polymer technology and intellectual property assets of Chromosol Ltd (UK), which significantly strengthened its design capabilities with foundry PDKs with extremely low temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes that effectively hermetically seal polymer devices that have been prepared for high-volume manufacturing. The advanced fabrication processes of ALD with temperatures below 100C will solidify the company’s market position with both its manufacturing foundry partners, as well as, end-users as it prepares to enter the 800Gbps integrated photonics marketplace. The acquisition also advanced the company’s patent portfolio of electro-optic polymer technology with an innovative polymer chemistry device patent that has the potential to increase the performance of integrated modulators through optical amplification in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and enhance the functionality of the PIC by integrating laser light sources made using the polymer-based gain and a laser optical cavity defined on the Silicon photonic platform, with the company’s high-speed, high-efficiency modulators.
In total, the company’s patent portfolio currently consists of 77 granted patents that include 46 from the US, 2 from Canada, 3 from the United Kingdom, 18 from the EU, 1 from Japan, 6 from China (including Hong Kong), and 1 from Australia.
The company’s materials patent portfolio has also strengthened significantly with the filing of additional new patent applications on its core Perkinamine molecular compounds, as well as, recent, innovative inventions that are expected to protect its P2IC polymer PIC platform from potential competition.
Included in the company’s patent portfolio are the following nonlinear optic chromophore designs:
Stable Free Radical Chromophores, processes for preparing the same.
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.
Device Design Fabrication Methods.
Modulators and Waveguides.
Hermetic Capsulation.
The company’s patent portfolio includes patents not only on nonlinear optic chromophore designs, but also device designs and inventions, fabrication process inventions, packaging design inventions, as well as, novel chemistry to enable high performance, low power, small footprint polymer PIC technology.
Recent Significant Events
On May 21, 2024, the company announced its collaboration with Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF), a leading Silicon Photonics volume foundry, to develop state-of-the-art polymer slot modulators utilizing AMF's silicon photonics platform.
On September 24, 2024, the company announced a collaboration with Polariton Technologies to demonstrate a packaged device with over 110 GHz super high bandwidth packaged electro-optic polymer modulators using Polariton's plasmonic modulator device design that contains the company’s proprietary Perkinamine chromophores at the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) held in Frankfurt, Germany from September 22-26, 2024.
On March 10, 2025, the company announced the advancement of its technical collaboration with Polariton Technologies, a technology leader of high-speed EO components for the communication market, and its transition from being a material supplier to collaborating on market development through end-user engagement and technical cooperation.
Target Markets
The company’s initial target market is the AI-focused datacenter ecosystem that is exponentially expanding to address the need for accurate Large Language Models – LLMs - for a variety of applications.
Business Strategy
The company’s first revenue stream was obtained from its entry into a material supply license agreement to provide Perkinamine chromophore materials for polymer-based photonic devices and photonic integrated circuits (PICs).
Specifically, the company’s business strategy provides that its revenue stream will be derived from one or some combination of the following: technology licensing for specific product applications; joint venture relationships with significant industry leaders; and the production and direct sale of its own electro-optic materials. The company’s strategies are to further the development of proprietary organic electro-optic polymer material systems; partner with PIC or packaged device design and manufacturing companies to further the development of PDKs for the company’s polymer material; develop proprietary intellectual property; grow its commercial device design and development capabilities; partner with silicon-based foundries that can scale volume quickly, and integrate its materials into their infrastructure; grow its optoelectronic and RF testing capabilities; grow its commercial material manufacturing capabilities; and maintain/develop strategic relationships with major telecommunications and data communications companies to further the awareness and commercialization of its technology platform.
Create Organic Polymer-Enabled Electro-Optic Modulators
The company intends to utilize its proprietary optical polymer technology to enable the creation by its customers of a portfolio of commercial electro-optic polymer product devices with applications for various markets, including telecommunications, data communications, and data centers.
The company expects its polymer material to be used initially in modulator products that will operate at symbol rates at least 112 Gigabaud, which is roughly 200Gbps when utilized with PAM4 encoding schemes. The company’s devices are highly linear and can also enable the performance required to take advantage of more advanced complex encoding schemes if required.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development expenses were $16,806,548 for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Past Government Program Participation
The company’s 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
The company is aware of a multitude of government programs that include, for example, the Chips and Science Act, amongst others.
Competition
Smaller companies that compete with the company on optical modulators using new and novel technologies include: Hyperlite (who are developing thin film lithium niobate (TFLN)), NLM Photonics (organic hybrid polymer), and Lumiphase (who are developing Barium Titanate or BTO).
History
The company was founded in 1991. It was incorporated under the laws of the state of Nevada in 1997. The company was formerly known as Third-order Nanotechnologies, Inc. and changed its name to Lightwave Logic, Inc. in 2008.
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