Glossary

Technical and financial terms used throughout the POET KB. Cross-linked from technical articles where the term first appears.

Architecture

Optical Interposer: POET's proprietary integration platform: a passive silicon waveguide layer onto which III-V actives (lasers, modulators, detectors) are hybrid-bonded via flip-chip + adiabatic coupling. The architectural pillar of the bull thesis; ECOC 2025 'Most Innovative' award validated 200G/lane Tx/Rx engines.
Hybrid integration: Photonic integration approach combining a passive silicon waveguide platform with separately-fabricated III-V active chips, vs. monolithic SiPh which integrates everything in silicon (with reduced laser/modulator performance). POET's Optical Interposer is a leading commercial hybrid-integration embodiment.
III-V on Si: Heterogeneous integration of III-V semiconductor materials (InP, GaAs) onto silicon substrates. POET sources III-V actives from specialist foundries (Sivers DFB lasers, NTT, others) rather than operating an in-house InP fab post-DenseLight 2019 divestiture.

MZI: Mach-Zehnder Interferometer. The dominant electro-optic modulator architecture in monolithic silicon photonics; uses a Si waveguide with applied electric field to phase-modulate light. Limited drive voltage / bandwidth at >1.6T cycles, driving interest in TFLN and POH alternatives.
EML / DML: Externally Modulated Laser / Directly Modulated Laser. Common laser-side architectures in pluggable transceivers; relevant to POET's light-source partnerships with Sivers (DFB lasers) and NTT.
EAM: Electro-Absorption Modulator. Compact modulator architecture commonly integrated with InP DFB lasers in EML configurations; relevant to high-data-rate pluggable design.
TFLN: Thin-Film Lithium Niobate. EO modulator material achieving high bandwidth × drive-voltage product at 1.6T+. POET's Quantum Computing Inc. (QCi) collaboration develops 400G/lane TFLN-modulator-based 3.2T engines. Competing with EO-polymer (Lightwave Logic) and POH (Polariton/Marvell) at the modulator-IP layer.

CWDM4 / CWDM8: Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing 4-lane / 8-lane. Standard pluggable optical-engine architectures at 100G/400G; CWDM8 is POET's Q4 2025 800G receive engine variant.
FR4 / DR4 / DR8: Form-factor / Distance / Lane configurations for optical engines. POET's $5M production order is for 2xFR4 + 2xDR4 400G transmit engines and 800G 2xFR4 + DR8 receive engines.
PSM4: Parallel Single-Mode 4-lane. 100G / 400G pluggable transceiver architecture using parallel single-mode fibers; relevant baseline for hybrid integration cost-comparison vs. WDM architectures.

QSFP-DD / OSFP: Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable - Double Density / Octal Small Form-factor Pluggable. Pluggable transceiver form factors for 800G / 1.6T deployments. POET's Optical Interposer engines target inclusion in QSFP-DD and OSFP modules.

OFC: Optical Fiber Communication conference. Premier industry venue (typically March, San Diego). POET historically uses OFC for product reveals + competitive positioning. OFC 2027 is a critical catalyst window for 1.6T / 3.2T architecture disclosures.
ECOC: European Conference on Optical Communication. Annual September European industry venue. POET won the ECOC 2025 'Most Innovative' award for the Optical Interposer.

NRE: Non-Recurring Engineering. The customer-funded engineering work in a transceiver-component design-win cycle. POET's 2025 revenue of $1.07M is partially NRE; product revenue tracks separately.
ATM offering: At-The-Market offering. Method of selling shares directly into the market over time at prevailing prices; filed via 424B5 prospectus supplements. POET filed at least 7 424B5 ATM offerings between Sept 2023 and Jan 2026.
F-3ASR: Form F-3 Automatic Shelf Registration. Foreign private issuer (Canadian-domiciled) version of S-3ASR; lets POET file a base shelf and take down equity in 424B5 supplements. The structural foundation of POET's dilution-trajectory pattern.
424B5: Prospectus supplement filed under Rule 424(b)(5) of the Securities Act. POET's 424B5 take-down history is the primary-source footprint of the dilution-trajectory thesis (Bear case Pillar 1).

Foreign Private Issuer (FPI): POET's SEC reporting status (Canadian domicile). Files Form 20-F annually + Form 6-K interim reports. Form 4 does NOT apply (Section 16 exempt). Insider-transaction visibility is materially reduced vs. US-domestic-issuer peers.
PFIC: Passive Foreign Investment Company. POET's historical US-tax classification. Creates QEF/MTM elections complexity for US holders. POET signaled US-redomicile track which would resolve PFIC status — a structural multiple-expansion catalyst.