I'm puzzled by the fact this takes so long if you, as a company, need such a wafers. Any thoughts on that someone? Clearly billions of wafer are produced each year but if you want one it's almost a year you have to wait for it.
The wafers produced on large scale have been through development already. They have been thoroughly proven to meet the specifications set for their use.
On the other hand, the wafers/chips that Lightwave are waiting on are still in development. This means their production will be studied as they are made and the process to make them may even be tweeked from run to run in order optimize the outcome. Without publication of the details of this "tweeking", we may never know what specifics are being optimized. Taking a technology from the lab to commercialization is a significant challenge that would be expected to take some time. IMO the progress being reported is consistent with their projected timelines.
Maybe Rick can answer that. Are these the same silicon wafers LWLG orders, used in cellphones/smartphones/PC, etc?
We can only go by what Lightwave has repeatedly discussed. Yes, the process would start with a silicon wafer the same as you would to make smart phone chips. The difference is what they do with the wafer. Meaning what patterns are etched on the wafer and what materials are used in building those patterns. So far, Lightwave has focussed on the data center interconnects as their initial target market. I don't recall them mentioning a smart phone chip design.
And how come Opsis cannot make a profitable business providing this service?
Was OpSis intended to be a profitable business? I always assumed OpSis was intended to be more of an industry development service intended to accelerate technology development. I thought that the closing of OpSis is probably signalling that it is no longer needed.
I am totally speculating here. I can think of two reasons OpSis may no longer be needed. First, maybe progress has been faster than they expected and the technologies are now ready for individual companies to do the work in their own foundries. Or second, the relationship with the alternative organizations (ie IMEC, ASTAR, etc) has improved or changed in some way that would make OpSis obsolete.
