UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

☒	ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023

☐	TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15 (D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from ________________________to________________________

Commission file number: 001-40766

Lightwave Logic, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Nevada

82-0497368

(State or other jurisdiction of

incorporation or organization)

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification No.)

369 Inverness Parkway, Suite 350, Englewood, CO		80112
(Address of principal executive offices)		(Zip Code)

(Registrant’s Telephone Number, including Area Code): 720-340-4949

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class	Trading Symbol(s)	Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, $0.001 par value per share	LWLG	The NASDAQ Stock Market

Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer ☒		Accelerated filer ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☐		Smaller reporting company ☐
		Emerging growth company ☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by checkmark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant's executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to § 240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act of 1934). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $805,311,165 as of June 30, 2023.

As of February 29, 2024, there were 119,184,778 shares outstanding of the registrant’s common stock, $.001 par value.

Documents incorporated by reference. Portions of the registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement for the registrant’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are incorporated by reference in Part III of this report. The Definitive Proxy Statement or an amendment to this Form 10-K will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.

Table of Contents

			Page

PART I
	Item 1.	Business	1
	Item 1A.	Risk Factors	31
	Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	50
	Item 1C.	Cybersecurity	50
	Item 2.	Properties	50
	Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	50
	Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures

PART II
	Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	51
	Item 6.	Reserved	53
	Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	53
	Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	61
	Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	61
	Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	61
	Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	61
	Item 9B.	Other Information	62
	Item 9C.	Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections	62

PART III
	Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	63
	Item 11.	Executive Compensation	63
	Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	63
	Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	63
	Item 14.	Principal Accountant Fees and Services	63

PART IV
	Item 15.	Exhibit and Financial Statement Schedules	65
	Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary

Forward-Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements about our plans, objectives, expectations, assumptions or future events. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “plan,” “project,” “continuing,” “ongoing,” “expect,” “we believe,” “we intend,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “could” and similar expressions denoting uncertainty or an action that may, will or is expected to occur in the future. These statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Factors that are known to us that could cause a different result than projected by the forward-looking statement, include, but are not limited to:

	·	inability to generate significant revenue or to manage growth;
	·	lack of available funding;
	·	lack of a market for or market acceptance of our products;
	·	competition from third parties;
	·	general economic and business conditions;
	·	intellectual property rights of third parties;
	·	changes in the price of our stock and dilution;
	·	regulatory constraints and potential legal liability;
	·	ability to maintain effective internal controls;
	·	security breaches, cybersecurity attacks and other significant disruptions in our information technology systems;
	·	changes in technology and methods of marketing;
	·	delays in completing various engineering and manufacturing programs;
	·	changes in customer order patterns and qualification of new customers;
	·	changes in product mix;
	·	success in technological advances and delivering technological innovations;
	·	shortages in components;
	·	production delays due to performance quality issues with outsourced components;
	·	those events and factors described by us in Item 1.A “Risk Factors”;
	·	other risks to which our Company is subject; and
	·	other factors beyond the Company’s control.

Any forward-looking statement made by us in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

PART I

Item 1.

Business.

Overview

Lightwave Logic, Inc. is a technology company focused on the development of next generation electro-optic photonic devices made on its P²IC™ technology platform which we have detailed as: 1) Polymer Stack™, 2) Polymer Plus™, and 3) Polymer Slot™. Our unique polymer technology platform uses in-house proprietary high-activity and high-stability organic polymers. Electro-optical devices called modulators convert data from electric signals into optical signals for multiple applications.

Our differentiation at the modulator device level is in higher speed, lower power consumption, simplicity of manufacturing, small footprint (size), and reliability. We have demonstrated higher speed and lower power consumption in packaged devices, and during 2023, we continued to make advances in techniques to translate our world class material properties to efficient, reliable modulator devices with commercial foundries. We are currently focused on testing and demonstrating the simplicity of manufacturability and reliability of our devices, including in conjunction with the silicon photonics manufacturing ecosystem. In 2023 we worked with silicon-based foundry partners to help scale in volume our polymer modulator devices and we received working modulator chips from these foundries. We have advanced and matured our interactions with our foundry partners and we continue to receive working modulator chips for prototyping. Silicon-based foundries are large semiconductor fabrication plants developed for the electronics IC business, that are now engaging with silicon photonics to increase their wafer throughput. Partnering with silicon-based foundries not only demonstrates that our polymer technology can be transferred into standard production lines using standard equipment, it also allows us to efficiently utilize our capital. The foundry partnerships will allow us to scale our high-performance polymer optical engines quickly and efficiently. We have now received silicon wafers that range up to 200mm in diameter, which aligns well with foundry manufacturing.

Our extremely strong and broad patent portfolio allows us to optimize our business model in three areas: 1) Traditional focus on product development, 2) Patent licensing and 3) Technology transfer to foundries. We are continually looking to strengthen our patent portfolio both by internal inventions and acquisition of intellectual property.

We are initially targeting applications in fiber optic data communications and telecommunications markets and are exploring other applications that include automotive/LIDAR, sensing, displays etc., for our polymer technology platform. Our goal is to have our unique polymer technology platform become ubiquitous across many market verticals over and above the optical fiber optic communications markets.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (G-AI) has been integrating deeper within our daily activities with applications to make us more efficient and possibly smarter. The impact on the internet is huge, and the internet is based on an optical network that utilizes data centers to route and switch traffic or information to and from destinations. Data centers are being upgraded today in a fashion that the industry has not seen before with significant investments of capital. The expected demands of increased traffic, information, and data driven by G-AI is changing the way the internet is being operated. G-AI is now creating new and interesting market opportunities to upgrade the internet. Three of these opportunities are important today: density, speed, and low power and these are very well aligned with our high performance electro-optic polymers modulator platform. We are designing high performance polymer modulator optical engines to support the rise and growth of G-AI as it generates more information that will travel through the internet and optical network. While we are not directly a G-AI company designing electronic processors, we do see immediate benefits of enabling higher levels of information to cross the internet using our optical polymer modulator platform.

Unless the context otherwise requires, all references to the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us” and other similar terms means Lightwave Logic, Inc. Also, this Form 10-K Annual Report includes the names of various government agencies and the trade names of other companies. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the use or display by us of such other parties’ names and trade names in this report is not intended to and does not imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any of these other parties.

Commencement of Commercial Operations

We commenced commercial operations in May 2023. Presently, our commercial operations consist of a material supply license agreement to provide Perkinamine^® chromophore materials for polymer based photonic devices and photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The license agreement represents tangible commercial progress for electro-optic polymers as part of our Company's business plan. Our Company is also in various stages of photonic device and materials development and evaluation with potential customers and strategic partners. We expect to continue to obtain a revenue stream from technology licensing agreements, and to obtain additional revenue streams from technology transfer agreements and direct sale of our electro-optic device components. We have seen increased interest in our materials during 2023 and we are in discussions on future license agreements.

Materials Development

Our 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. Our organic electro-optic polymer systems compounds are mixed into solution form that allows for thin film application. Our proprietary electro-optic polymers are designed at the molecular level for potentially superior performance, stability, and cost-efficiency. We believe our proprietary and unique polymers have the potential to replace more expensive, higher power consuming, slower-performance materials such as semiconductor-based modulator devices that are used in fiber-optic communication networks today.

Our 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 our core molecular structures to maintain stability under a broad range of operating conditions.

We expect our 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 we will develop or enable our partners to fully commercialize. Examples of our partners include: electro-optic device manufacturers, contract manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, foundries, packaging and assembly manufacturers etc. Our 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

Our Company designs its own proprietary 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. Our modulators are electro-optic, meaning they work because the optical properties of the polymers are affected by electric fields applied by means of electrodes. Modulators are key components that are used in fiber optic telecommunications, data communications, and data centers networks etc., to convey the high data flows that have been driven by applications such as pictures, video streaming, movies etc., that are being transmitted through the Internet. Electro-optical modulators are expected to continue to be an essential element as the appetite and hunger for data increases every year as well as the drive towards lower power consumption, and smaller footprint (size).

Polymer Photonic Integrated Circuits (P²IC™)

Our Company also designs its own proprietary Photonic Integrated Circuits (otherwise termed a polymer PIC). A polymer PIC is a photonic device that integrates several photonic functions on a single chip. We believe that our technology can enable an ultra-miniaturization footprint that is needed to increase the number of photonic functions residing on a semiconductor chip. We see this creating a progression like what was seen in the computer integrated circuits, commonly referred to as Moore’s Law. One type of integration is to combine several instances of the same photonic functions such as a plurality of modulators to create a multi-channel polymer PIC. The number of channels can be varied depending on application. For example, the number of photonic components could increase by a factor of 4, 8, or 16. Another type of integration is to combine different types of devices including from different technology bases such as the combination of a semiconductor laser with a polymer modulator. Our P²IC™ platform encompasses both these types of architecture.

Current semiconductor photonic technology today is struggling to reach faster device speeds. Our modulator devices, enabled by our 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). Our advanced electro-optic polymer platform is creating a new class of modulators such as the Polymer Stack™, Polymer Plus™, Polymer Slot™, and associated PIC platforms that can address higher data rates in a lower cost, lower power consuming manner, smaller footprint (size) with much simpler data encoding techniques. Our electro-optic polymer material will boost the performance of standard PIC platforms such as silicon photonics and indium phosphide.

Our 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 our Polymer Plus™ and Polymer Slot™ device platforms to not only be competitive but fully integrated with foundries. Our 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 we term the Polymer Slot™. This design is based on a slot modulator fabricated into semiconductor wafers that can include either silicon or indium phosphide.

Our Company has a fabrication facility in Colorado to apply standard fabrication processes to our electro-optic polymers which create modulator devices. While our internal fabrication facility is capable of manufacturing modulator devices, we have partnered with commercial silicon-based fabrication companies that are called foundries who can scale our technology with volume quickly and efficiently. The process recipe for fabrication plants or foundries is called a ‘process development kit’ or PDK. We are currently working with commercial foundries to implement our electro-optic polymers into accepted PDKs by the foundries. One of the metrics for successful implementation of PDK is to receive working modulator chips. Our work with the foundries is being focused with the Polymer Plus™ and the Polymer Slot™ polymer modulators.

Glossary

Glossary of select technology terms to provide you with a better understanding our 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 such as Ridge waveguide (Polymer™ Stack) and slot waveguide (Polymer Slot™). 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. PAM4 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 wavelength.

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.

Our Business Opportunity

Lightwave Logic, Inc. is developing next generation proprietary photonic devices that are based on our advanced electro-optical polymer material systems. Current legacy technology is based on inorganic crystalline materials, which has allowed for the proliferation of data over fiber optic cables. However, there are inherent molecular deficiencies that have prevented this technology from scaling down in price and up in functionality, especially in terms of $/Gbps. This is primarily due to a closed valence structure that does not allow for the molecular improvements. The valence or valency of an element is a measure of its combining power with other atoms when it forms chemical compounds or molecules. Also, the physical properties of a crystal do not allow for its implementation into highly miniaturize slot structures that are in simple terms the pathways that light travels through in the device.

Organic polymer materials have free electrons that allow for limitless potential to combine with other molecular structures, which allows for multiple options and combinations to improving performance characteristics. Importantly, because they can be applied to optical structures in thin-film liquid form, it is possible to imbue electro-optic ability to highly miniaturized slot structures. Organic polymer materials are also more economic to manufacture in comparison to growing exotic crystals that are prone to contamination and further must be sliced into thin wafers. Our Company believes that the combination of less expensive manufacturing cost, ease of application, and better scalability, together with a lower cost of ownership due to lower heat dissipation (requiring less cooling), will create enormous demand for our polymer material through supply agreements as well as polymer based products.

Many companies’ early attempts at developing commercially reliable organic polymers were stymied due to the difficulty of creating organic molecules that could remain electro-optically active after being subjected to the high heat of semiconductor manufacturing temperatures (such as silicon CMOS, InP, GaAs etc.). These early attempts also encountered difficulty synthesizing materials that could withstand photochemical bleaching (loss of sensitivity to specific frequencies) and material degradation due to high operating temperatures.

Over the last several years, our Company has made various scientific breakthroughs that have allowed for the synthesis of proprietary organic polymer materials that can withstand extremely high process temperatures that exceed 175⁰C. Additionally, these materials have demonstrated photochemical stability, even after being subjected to high intensity light for over 5,000 hours and exhibited little electro optic degradation even after being continuously exposed at 110⁰C. This operating temperature exceeds the maximum commercial operating temperatures of approximately 85⁰C, found in large data centers. These devices were prototyped using ridge waveguide design. Polymer based ridge waveguide modulators prototypes called a Polymer Stack™ have performed with 3dB bandwidths that exceed 70GHz.

The Ridge Waveguide Modulator (Polymet Stack™ )

A ridge waveguide modulator is a type of modulator where the waveguide is fabricated within a layer of our electro-optic polymer system. Various cladding materials and electrodes are layered over the core polymer. The polymer materials are then part of an integrated photonics platform that can house other photonic devices, such as lasers, waveguides etc.

In April 2017 we achieved bandwidth suitable for 25Gbps data rates in an all-organic polymer ridge waveguide intensity modulator prototype, a significant improvement over our initial 10Gbps device modulator prototype that was announced the previous year. This breakthrough was significant because a 25Gbps data rate is important to the optical networking industry because this data rate is a key requirement for achieving 100 Gbps (using 4 channels of 25 Gbps). In July 2017 we advanced our high-speed modulation performance to satisfy 28Gbps data rates for QSFP28 standards which are also utilized for 100Gbps data center applications.

In September 2017 we achieved outstanding performance of our ridge waveguide Mach-Zehnder modulators ahead of schedule, with bandwidth performance levels that will enable 50Gbaud modulation in fiber-optic communications. This important achievement will allow users to utilize arrays of 4 x 50Gbaud polymer modulators using PAM-4 encoding to access 400Gbps data rate systems. Pulse-Amplitude Modulation (PAM-4) is an encoding scheme that can double the amount of data that can be transmitted.

We are now further optimizing our high-performance modulators for additional specifications that are beginning to be required by the fiber communications industry for applications such as networks running at data rates of 800Gbps and 1600Gbps. 800Gbps will require combining 4 channels of 200Gbps utilizing PAM4 encoding schemes which will prove challenging for many existing modulator technologies. Our technology platform has the capability and potential to address 4 channels of 400Gbps utilizing PAM4 encoding schemes in the near future, thus creating a roadmap of increased performance for the industry. Furthermore, we are collaborating with industry partners to optimize the packaging our modulators so that potential customers can evaluate our high-performance modulators in their systems. This effort will also aid in addressing one of the most under-evaluated processes of developing high speed devices onto a new and novel technology platform which is robustness and reliability. We have already made extensive progress with our polymer materials on this front, and now we are integrating our robust polymer materials onto an integrated photonics platform to provide customers with a more miniaturized, higher performance solution for their data rich systems.

While our initial focus is to address data communications and telecommunications network applications along with cloud computing/data center needs, we believe that in the future we will have additional opportunities over and above G-AI to address other applications such as: backplane optical interconnects, photovoltaic cells, medical applications, satellite reconnaissance, navigation systems, radar applications, optical filters, spatial light modulators; and all-optical switches.

Electro-Optic Polymer Production – Our Approach vs. the BLA Approach

Our Electro-Optic Material Approach

Our core material expertise relates to the production of high-performance, high-stability electro-optic polymers for high-speed (wide bandwidth) telecommunication and data communications applications. More specifically, it lies in a less mainstream, yet firmly established, scientific phenomenon called aromaticity. Aromaticity causes a high degree of molecular stability. It is a molecular arrangement wherein atoms combine into multi-membered rings and share their electrons among each other. Aromatic compounds are stable because the electronic charge distributes evenly over a great area preventing hostile moieties, such as oxygen and free radicals, from finding an opening to attack.

Previous and Current Competitive Organic Electro-Optic Polymer Efforts

For the past several decades, diverse corporate interests, including, to our knowledge, IBM, Lockheed Martin, DuPont, AT&T Bell Labs, Honeywell, Motorola, HP, 3M, and others in addition to numerous universities and U.S. Government Agencies, have attempted to produce high-performance, high-stability electro-optic polymers for high-speed (wide bandwidth) telecommunication applications. These efforts were largely unsuccessful due, in our opinion, to the industry’s singular adherence to an industry pervasive engineering model known as the Bond Length Alternation ("BLA") theory model, which none of our patented molecular designs rely upon. The BLA model, like all other current industry-standard molecular designs, consists of molecular designs containing long strings of atoms called polyene chains. Longer polyene chains provide higher electro-optic performance, but are also more susceptible to environmental threats, which result in unacceptably low-performing, thermally unstable electro-optic polymers.

As a result, high frequency modulators engineered with electro-optic polymers designed on the BLA model or any other polyene chain design models are unstable over typical operating temperature ranges, and often exhibit performance degradation within days, hours or even minutes. Similarly, lower frequency modulators exhibit comparable failings, but to a lesser extent. These flaws, in most cases, have prevented commercial quality polymer-based modulators from entering the commercial marketplace. The thermal stability of these devices does not generally meet the minimum Telcordia GR-468 operating temperature range (-40 degrees Celsius to +85 degrees Celsius) much less the harsher MILSPEC 883D (military specification) range of -55 degrees Celsius to 150 degrees Celsius. While many new applications do not require meeting full military or Telcordia GR-468 specifications for polymers, many potential customers prefer to see polymer operate at or near these conditions to convey confidence in the material system. We understand from initial conversations with data center architects and designers that the temperature specifications that our materials achieve are compliant with their equipment design needs.

We are aware of other academic and commercial development efforts—some by larger companies with vastly more financial resources than we possess. However, we believe that no one yet has developed organic polymer materials that have demonstrated the combination of thermal stability, photochemical stability and reliability that can meet or exceed commercial specifications.

Our Electro-Optic Photonic P²IC™ Device Approach

Our electro-optic devices are built around our proprietary organic polymer material systems that we believe will enable better performance than the current embedded legacy technology built around inorganic materials. We also believe that the inherent flexibility of being able to apply our organic polymer materials in liquid thin-film form will accelerate the move toward ultra-miniaturization of Polymer Photonic Integrated Circuits (P²IC^TM) by increasing the number of photonic circuits on a single chip. Polymer photonics is the application of polymers on to 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 on to a silicon platform that acts as a package as well as a base for mounting lasers (which are needed to source the light).

Our initial device, though highly miniaturized, utilizes conventional design and fabrication techniques in the industry. Our future devices will utilize silicon photonics (SiPh) technology, which can support highly miniaturized slot waveguides structures etched in large format (200mm), low cost, and less expensive silicon wafers coated with our 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. We now have the capability to model, simulate and design photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in-house and we are currently developing 4 channel electro-optic polymer modulators.

Our Intellectual Property

Our research and development efforts over the last 10+ years have yielded our Company an extensive patent portfolio as well as critical trade secrets, unpatented technology and proprietary knowledge related to our optical polymer materials. Our intellectual property portfolio has expanded significantly over the few years as we are developing our P²IC™ into prototypes. We have actively filed technical utility patents and are currently in the process of readying a number of other inventions for formal filings in 2024 and 2025. We expect to continue innovating with our P²IC platform over the next decade. We had additional patents issued or published over the past year indicating that our technology is being recognized as being unique.

In 2018, we acquired the polymer technology intellectual property assets of BrPhotonics Productos Optoelectrónicos S.A., a Brazilian corporation, which significantly advanced our patent portfolio of electro-optic polymer technology with 15 polymer chemistry materials, devices, packaging and subsystems patents and further strengthened our design capabilities to solidify our market position as we prepare to enter the 400Gbps integrated photonics marketplace with a highly competitive, scalable alternative to installed legacy systems.

In 2022, we acquired the polymer technology and intellectual property assets of Chromosol Ltd (UK), which significantly strengthened our Company's 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 our market position with both the Company's manufacturing foundry partners as well as end-users as we prepare to enter the 800Gbps integrated photonics marketplace. The acquisition also advanced our Company’s patent portfolio of electro-optic polymer technology with an innovative polymer chemistry device patent that has 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 our Company’s high speed, high efficiency modulators.

In total, our patent portfolio currently consists of 67 granted patents that include 54 from the US, 1 from World International Property Organization (WIPO), 1 from Canada, 6 from the EU, 2 from Japan and 3 from China.

Our materials patent portfolio has also strengthened significantly with the filing of additional new patent applications on our core Perkinamine™ molecular compounds as well as recent, innovative inventions that are expected to protect our P²IC polymer PIC platform from potential competition.

Included in our 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

Our 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.

Our strategic plan is to utilize our core proprietary technology and leverage our proprietary optical materials to be the core of and the enabling technology for future generations of optical devices, modules, sub-systems and systems that we will develop or potentially out-license to electro-optic device manufacturers. Our Company contemplates future applications that may address the needs of semiconductor companies, automotive/LiDAR companies, sensing companies, aerospace companies and government agencies.

We rely on a combination of patents, patent applications, trademarks, trade secrets and contractual provisions to protect our technologies. Further, employees are required to surrender any inventions or intellectual property developed as part of their employment agreements. We also have a policy of requiring prospective business partners to enter into non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosure of any of our confidential or proprietary information. Our Company can make no assurances that we will be able to effectively protect our technologies and know-how or that third parties will not be able to develop similar technologies and know-how independently.

Recent Significant Events and Milestones Achieved

During February and March 2018, we moved our Newark, Delaware synthetic laboratory and our Longmont, Colorado optical testing laboratory and corporate headquarters to office, laboratory and research and development space located at 369 Inverness Parkway, Suite 350, Englewood, Colorado. The 13,420 square feet Englewood facility includes fully functional 1,000 square feet of class 1,000 cleanroom, 500 square feet of class 10,000 cleanroom, chemistry laboratories, and analytic laboratories. The Englewood facility streamlines all of our Company’s research and development workflow for greater operational efficiencies.

During March 2018, our Company, together with our packaging partner, successfully demonstrated packaged polymer modulators designed for 50Gbaud, which we believe will allow us to scale our P²IC™ platform with our Mach-Zehnder ridge waveguide modulator design as well as other photonics devices competitively in the 100Gbps and 400Gbps datacom and telecommunications applications market. We are currently fine-tuning the performance parameters of these prototypes in preparation for customer evaluations.

During June 2018, our Company Acquired the Polymer Technology Intellectual Property Assets of BrPhotonics Productos Optoelectrónicos S.A., a Brazilian corporation, which significantly advanced our patent portfolio of electro-optic polymer technology with 15 polymer chemistry materials, devices, packaging and subsystems patent and further strengthened our design capabilities to solidify our market position as we prepare to enter the 400Gbps integrated photonics marketplace with a highly competitive, scalable alternative to installed legacy systems.

Also, during June 2018, our Company promoted polymer PICs and Solidified Polymer PICs as Part of the Photonics Roadmap at the World Technology Mapping Forum in Enschede, Netherlands, which includes our Company’s technology of polymers and polymer PICs that have the potential to drive not only 400Gbps aggregate data rate solutions, but also 800Gbps and beyond.

In August 2018 we announced the completion (ahead of schedule) of our fully equipped on-site fabrication facility, where we are expanding our high-speed test and design capabilities. We also announced the continuation of the building of our internal expertise with the hiring of world-class technical personnel with 100Gbps experience.

In February 2019 we announced a major breakthrough in our development of clean technology polymer materials that target the insatiable demand for fast and efficient data communications in the multi-billion-dollar telecom and data markets supporting Internet, 5G and IoT (Internet of Things) webscale services. The improved thermally stable polymer has more than double the electro-optic response of our previous materials, enabling optical device performance of well over 100 GHz with extremely low power requirements. This addition to the family of Perkinamine^TM polymers will hold back run-away consumption of resources and energy needed to support ever-growing data consumption demands. We continue to conduct testing of the material and assessment of associated manufacturing processes and device structures prior to release to full development.

In March 2019 we created an Advisory Board comprised of three world-class leaders in the photonics industry: Dr. Craig Ciesla, Dr. Christoph S. Harder, and Mr. Andreas Umbach. In January 2022 Dr. Ciesla was named to our Board of Directors, and our Advisory Board is currently comprised of Dr. Franky So, Dr. Christoph S. Harder, Mr. Andreas Umbach and Dr. Joseph A. Miller, who is a former member of our Board of Directors. The Advisory Board is working closely with our Company leadership to enhance our Company’s product positioning and promote our polymer modulator made on our proprietary Faster by Design™ polymer P²IC™ platform. The mission of the Advisory Board is initially to increase our Company’s outreach into the datacenter interconnect market and later to support expansion into other billion-dollar markets. The Advisory Board members have each been chosen for their combination of deep technical expertise, breadth of experience and industry relationships in the fields of fiber optics communications, polymer and semiconductor materials. Each of the Advisory Board members has experience at both innovators like Lightwave Logic and large industry leaders of the type most likely to adopt game-changing polymer-based products. In addition, they possess operational experience with semiconductor and polymer businesses.

Also, in March 2019, our Company received the “Best Achievement in PIC Platform” award for our 100 GHz polymer platform from the PIC International Conference. The award recognizes innovative advances in the development and application of key materials systems driving today’s photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and providing a steppingstone to future devices.

During the second quarter of 2019, our Company promoted its polymers at CoInnovate in May and the World Technology Mapping Forum in June. CoInnovate is a meeting of semiconductor industry experts. The World Technology Mapping Forum is a group authoring a photonics roadmap out to 2030.

In September 2019 at the prestigious European Conference on Communications (ECOC) in Dublin, Ireland, we showed measured material response over frequency and the resulting optical data bits stream on our clean technology polymer materials, the newest addition to our family of Perkinamine^TM polymers, that meet and exceed of our near-term target speed of 80 GHz. We also released data demonstrating stability under elevated temperatures in the activated (poled to create data carrying capability) state.

In October 2019, we reported that energy-saving polymer technology is highlighted in the recently published Integrated Photonics Systems Roadmap - International (IPSR-I). The roadmap validates the need for low-voltage, high-speed technologies such as ours.

In May 2020, we announced that our latest electro-optic polymer material has exceeded target performance metrics at 1310 nanometers (nm), a wavelength commonly used in high-volume datacenter fiber optics. This material demonstrates an attractive combination at 1310 nm of high electro-optic coefficient, low optical loss and good thermal stability at 85⁰ Celsius. The material is expected to enable modulators with 80 GHz bandwidth and low drive power, and has an electro-optic coefficient of 200 pm/V, an industry measure of how responsive a material is to an applied electrical signal. This metric, otherwise known as r33, is very important in lowering power consumption when the material is used in modulator devices. This technology is applicable to shorter reach datacenter operators, for whom decreasing power consumption is imperative to the bottom line of a facility. We considered this a truly historic moment—not only in our Company’s history, but in our industry–as we have demonstrated a polymer material that provides the basis for a world-class solution at the 1310 nm wavelength, something which other companies have spent decades attempting to achieve.

In July 2020, we announced the official launch of our new corporate website www.lightwavelogic.com, reflecting ongoing efforts to provide up-to-date information for investors and potential strategic partners. The revamped website offers a clean, modern design integrated with helpful tools and investor relations resources, including a new corporate explainer video, to illustrate the target markets and advantages of Lightwave Logic’s proprietary electro-optic polymers.

In August 2020, we announced the addition of Dr. Franky So, a leading authority in the OLED industry, to our Advisory Board. Dr. So is the Walter and Ida Freeman Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University. Previously, he was the Head of Materials and Device research for OLEDs at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, as well as Motorola’s corporate research lab in the 1990s. Dr. So was an early researcher in electro-optic (EO) polymer modulators at Hoechst Celanese. As a member of the Company’s advisory board, Dr. So will work closely with management to enhance Lightwave’s product positioning for, as well as the promotion of, its polymer modulators made on its proprietary platform. In addition, he will provide technical support and advisory services to the Lightwave materials and device teams.

On October 7, 2020 we announced the receipt of U.S. Patent number 10,754,093 that improves both the performance and reliability of our high-speed, low-power electro-optic polymer modulators intended for datacenter and telecommunications applications. The patent allows multi-layered electro-optic polymer modulators to perform more efficiently through the design of custom interfaces. These interfaces are designed into the cladding layers that allow optical transmission, electrical conductivity, material integrity, as well as a prevention of solvents affecting adjacent polymer materials. The net impact of all of this allows for our Company’s modulators to improve performance across the board, enabling higher reliability in the fiber optic communications environment.

On October 15, 2020, we announced that our proprietary polymer technologies are compatible with currently available integrated photonics platforms. Our proprietary electro-optic materials are currently in the prototyping phase and are fabricated onto standard silicon wafers, and this Polymer Plus™ advancement, driven by the feedback our Company received from potential customers to-date, has allowed our materials to be suitable for additive integration to integrated photonics platforms such as silicon photonics, as well as indium phosphide and other standard platforms – therefore enabling simpler integration by customers. We believe this breakthrough allows a polymer modulator to enhance the performance of existing integrated photonics solutions in the marketplace, enabling higher speed and lower power consumption on foundry-fabricated photonics designs. Since our technology is additive to existing platforms such as silicon photonics, our electro-optic polymers are not actually competing with integrated photonic platforms, but rather enabling them to be more competitive in the marketplace, and it further validates our EO polymer platform as ideally suited to enable optical networking more efficiently than ever.

On October 21, 2020, we announced that we have optimized a robust, photo-stable organic polymer material for use in our next-generation modulators intended to be trialed with potential customers under NDA. Our materials show high tolerance to high-intensity infrared light, common in a fiber optic communications environment and increasingly important as higher density of devices access the network, directly resulting in higher intensity infrared light levels. Our preliminary results suggest that our recently developed electro-optic polymer material, designed based on potential customer input, displays unrivaled light tolerance (also known as photostability) compared to any organic commercial solution in use today. Our results meet both our current internal criteria and address potential customer feedback.

On November 2, 2020, we disclosed results on our polymer material stability testing including further results for electro-optic efficiency for our Company’s materials that operate both at 1550nm as well as 1310nm. We demonstrated test materials results for electro-optic efficiency to 4000hrs, improvement in sensitivity to oxygen as part of a broadband exposure test, and stability for polymers exposed to 1310nm light at 100mW.

On November 20, 2020 we announced the receipt of U.S. Patent number 10,591,755 that details an important invention that allows users of electro-optic polymer modulators to not only operate the devices with high speed and low power directly from CMOS IC chips, but gives them the opportunity to avoid the expense, physical footprint and power consumption of high-speed modulator driver ICs. Furthermore, this patent strengthens our freedom of manufacturing, and directly enables our modulators to become more competitive in the marketplace.

On December 16, 2020 we announced the development of a new sealant for our future Chip-on-Board (COB) packaged polymer platform. The sealant, which blocks oxygen and other atmospheric gases, is a key step in our Company’s development towards a polymer modulator without a package, an important enabling technology for the industry. We plan to develop the sealant for commercial implementation in our future modulators. Recent results suggest that our electro-optic polymer sealant material displays encouraging barrier properties and is expected to translate to significant improvement in bare chip robustness against atmospheric gases, as compared to existing EO polymer commercial solutions in use today. While the initial measurements are highly promising, our Company plans to continue development work to further optimize the sealant material and barrier performance towards the chip-on-board goal.

On January 13, 2021, we announced the receipt of U.S. Patent number 10,886,694 that details an invention that allows electro-optic polymer modulators to be packaged in a hermetic environment using well-known, high-volume and low-cost fabrication processes that are available in a typical semiconductor fabrication foundry – improving suitability for mass production. Further, the design of this capsule package can improve both the reliability and the coupling interface between fiber optic cables and their laser sources for arrayed photonic integrated circuit solutions. The package can also interpose signals from an underlying circuit board to the polymer modulators, lasers, and other components for data transfer. The hermetic capsule is built from a semiconductor base that contains electrical and optical circuits and components. A hermetic capsule chamber is created by the design of a semiconductor lid that is sealed to the semiconductor base platform by a metallization process. Using standardized fabrication techniques we can now create a package that achieves the performance, reliability, cost, and volume requirements that has been a challenge for the photonics industry for years.

On May 11, 2021, we announced the receipt of U.S. Patent number 10,989,871 that details an invention that allows for improved protective polymer layers in modulators when designed into advanced integrated photonic platforms, better positioning them for high-volume manufacturing processes. The protective layers will enhance electro-optic polymer devices' performance through higher reliability, better optical performance and enable the use of standardized manufacturing processes best suited for mass-production.

SEC Form 10-K filed by Lightwave Logic Inc.