Lightwave Logic Presents At 2024 European Conference On Optical Communications, Takes Home Award For Innovation

From streaming movies and shows to online gaming and AI-powered apps, demand for data is growing at a rapid pace. That is overwhelming network infrastructures, leading to increased congestion which can result in slower speeds, increased latency and disrupted service. This network congestion is only expected to worsen as AI and machine learning become part of our daily lives and data demands reach terabytes and petabytes. 

Solving that network congestion problem is the main focus of Lightwave Logic, Inc. LWLG, the Englewood, Colorado, technology company that makes electro-optic – "EO" – polymers. Lightwave Logic says these EO polymers increase the efficiency of internet infrastructure by allowing more data to be transmitted at significantly higher speeds and with less power than existing solutions on the market. The result, according to the company, is three times faster data transmission speeds and ten times lower power, relieving bottlenecks in infrastructures. 

Tech Prowess On Display 

With more than 70 patents and an initial licensing agreement under its belt, it’s not surprising Lightwave Logic was a presenter at the 2024 European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC), which was held in late September in Frankfurt, Germany. ECOC is Europe’s leading conference on optical communications and one of the largest and most prestigious events in the field worldwide. The conference brings together experts and leaders from academia, research and industry across the globe to share their latest breakthroughs and visions for the future, giving Lightwave a big platform to show off its technology prowess. 

And that it did with CEO Dr. Michael Lebby discussing how polymer modulators are now showing performance for 200 Gbps PAM4 lanes, with initial results at 400 Gbps PAM4 lanes and headroom for 800 Gbps lanes. PAM4 lanes use Pulse Amplitude Modulation 4-level (PAM4) to transmit data at high speeds. 

“Electro-optic (EO) polymer modulators are a hot topic in the industry today as the industry strives to increase modulation speed while reducing optical network equipment power consumption, driven by generative AI-driven needs to upgrade hyperscale data centers," said Lebby. "We believe that as artificial intelligence, machine learning and other cloud-based services continue to drive the need for higher speed data transmission, the interest in the inherent wide bandwidth, low power consumption and footprint of our world-class performance electro-optic (EO) polymers will grow." 

Showing EOs In Action 

During the event, Lightwave collaborated with Polariton Technologies to demonstrate a packaged device with over 110 GHz super high bandwidth packaged electro-optic polymer modulators. Lebby said through the collaboration the two companies are showing how they can extend the performance of silicon photonics using plasmonics and electro-optic polymers. "This collaboration forms an important technology platform for scalability using large silicon foundries for mass commercialization with 200mm silicon wafers," he said. 

But taking part in the prestigious conference wasn't the only feather in the company's cap. Lightwave won the 2024 Industry Award for Most Innovative Hybrid PIC/Optical Integration Platform during the conference. It’s an award that's bestowed on companies that develop products and technology that advance the business of optical communications, transport, networking, fiber-based products, photonic integration circuits and related developments. The awards are granted by a technical committee of industry peers and industrial corporations and cover optical materials, components, packages and modules, and optical systems, networks, standards and architecture.

“Lightwave Logic is honored to receive the Award for Most Innovative Hybrid PIC/Optical Integration Platform on behalf of Lightwave Logic for the second time, granted by a committee of industry peers, reflecting true market recognition of our technology,” said Lebby. “Since winning the award in 2023, we have continued to demonstrate our leadership in the photonics industry with outstanding 200 Gbps per lane performance for our technologies that align well with data center expectations today." 

Inking Deals 

Lebby said the award acts as an important highlight amid ongoing discussions with a broad array of companies to provide designs, material supplies and licensing agreements for its EO polymer materials. Lebby said the discussions are with original equipment manufacturers and tier-1 multinational corporations. During the second quarter, Lightwave said it hosted visits with potential customers at its Englewood, Colorado, volume scale materials facility for inspection and review and to analyze its data rate performance. 

The company also inked a supply-chain collaboration with Advanced Micro Foundry‘s (AMF) Silicon Photonics platform, which it said will accelerate the development of state-of-the-art silicon photonics modulators. As a result, Lightwave Logic expects to ramp up volume of its polymer materials in its manufacturing facility in Colorado, as well as 200-millimeter silicon wafer volume with AMF. Lightwave ended the quarter with $29 million in cash, enough to finance operations through 2025, the company reported. 

"We are confident in the implicit competitive advantage of our solution to support data centers around the world which are responding to the burgeoning demand for higher speed data transmission from artificial intelligence, machine learning and other cloud-based services," Lebby said. 

Featured photo by Umberto on Unsplash.

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