POET Tech opens photonics design capabilities in Ottawa

Optoelectronic developer POET Technologies Inc., San Jose CA, has entered into an agreement with Ottawa-based MillView Photonics Inc. to establish a collaborative design center in Canada’a capital. 

POET Tech is also a designer and manufacturer of optoelectronic devices, including light sources, passive wave guides, and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for the data- and tele-communication markets. MillView was established two years ago by Dr. Trevor J. Hall, Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and founding director of the Centre for Research in Photonics at the University of Ottawa. Along with his team, which includes Peng Liu, senior passive component designer, Mihail Dumitrescu, senior active component designer, and supported by doctoral and postdoctoral graduate engineers, MillView serves clients in photonics research, simulation, design and process development.

The agreement between the two companies brings together in one lab the MillView team, including Dr. Hall, additional staff from MillView, and three PhD-level photonics engineers from POET. The team is also supported by POET’s senior vice president, Dr. William Ring, and additional POET design engineering resources.

“All really gratified to be working as a team with POET”

“MillView Photonics was founded along the same model as Cambridge Consultants where I worked on my return to Cambridge following PhD studies at University College London, U.K.  Cambridge Consultants tapped into a vast reservoir of talent to solve real-world design and engineering challenges utilizing academic/industry partnerships,” says Dr. Hall, a graduate of Cambridge University. “MillView is similarly situated to bring in the specific talent needed to address and solve a broad range of engineering challenges in photonics.  We are all really gratified to be working as a team with POET Technologies. POET’s unique Optical Interposer platform has tremendous market potential, and we are all committed as one team to its success.”

POET Tech’s CEO, Dr. Suresh Venkatesan, added: “POET’s partnership with MillView rapidly expands our effort with experienced photonics engineering talent and substantial simulation and design capacity.  In line with our stated strategy, we have assembled a team in one place dedicated to one goal – the design and development of waveguides and filters for our Optical Interposer platform. In addition, this places POET squarely in both a region and University where photonics design and development are vibrant and pervasive.  The number of companies engaged in the photonics industry and the quality of the engineering talent available is extraordinary.  We are very appreciative for the reception that Dr. Hall has extended to POET that allows us to function as one team.”