Lightwave Logic, Inc.

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March 17, 2014 Issue

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Proprietary Photonic Devices for Commercial, Military and Communications Markets

www.lightwavelogic.com
Lightwave Logic Inc, is a development stage company that is approaching commercialization of a portfolio of organic nonlinear electro-optical and all-optical polymers (plastic). The Company is using these materials as the basis for a series of proprietary (internal and licensed to external partners) advanced Integrated Optical Devices that have broad application in data, voice, and multimedia services such as movie streaming for use in both military and commercial markets.

For decades, several Fortune 100 companies initiated and subsequently abandoned organic polymer R&D efforts because they could not solve the critical problem of melding high electro-optical activity with thermal stability. A few small companies carried on the effort. Interestingly, Lightwave Logic took an out-of-the-box approach to solve the stability problem. While others started with a material that was electro-optically active and secondarily attempted to make it thermally stable, Lightwave started with a thermally stable material and secondarily made it electro-optically active—thus the Perkinamine^TM family was born.

Tom Zelibor
CEO

RADM Zelibor has served as a Director of Lightwave Logic since July 2008,became Chairman in October 2011 and CEO in May 2012. He has over twenty years of strategic planning and senior leadership experience and in addition, is the President and CEO of Zelibor & Associates, LLC that offers professional consulting services to his clients. Previously, from July 2008 until April 2011, RADM Zelibor served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Flatirons Solutions Corp., a professional services firm that provides consulting, systems integration, systems and software engineering, and program management expertise to corporate and government clients.

"Even though our materials are addressing extremely exciting market opportunities in telecom and datacom, there are even more exciting and disruptive applications this technology can make feasible, which could create tremendous growth for us in areas that were once only conceptual."- Tom Zelibor

Lightwave Logic, Inc.
1831 Lefthand Circle

Suite C

Longmont, CO 80501

302.356.2709

www.lightwavelogic.com

Lightwave Logic, Inc.
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Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – March 17, 2014

CEOCFO: Mr. Zelibor, what is the concept behind Lightwave Logic?

Mr. Zelibor: Lightwave Logic started out initially as a material-based company for advanced organic electro-optic materials. Of late, we are also developing proprietary photonic devices for commercial and military, telecommunications and data communications markets, to deal with the increased Internet traffic that has resulted from the high demand for data, voice and multi-media services.

CEOCFO: Was that a deliberate strategy or opportunistic?

Mr. Zelibor: It was a very deliberate strategy. Our founder, who was Dr. Frederick Goetz, knew that for years, the photonic industry has had the desire to find an inexpensive, reliable and easy to fabricate replacement for more exotic inorganic crystalline materials. He was looking for a viable alternative to those materials that would be much cheaper, faster and easier to produce than incumbent technologies. We need those materials in photonic devices and that is our goal.

CEOCFO: Did you find it?

Mr. Zelibor: We are getting closer all the time. The company is closer now than we have ever been. We are in the process now of using our materials in prototype devices to demonstrate the characteristics that are needed to achieve commercialization.

CEOCFO: What are you able to tell us about what you have learned that others have either not been able to figure out or not done as well?

Mr. Zelibor: I will tell you why others failed and why we are doing better. Prior to Lightwave Logic, creating non-linear organic polymers have been the holy grail of the photonics industry for the past 40 years. The way that other people have tried to solve the problem is that they found organic materials that had high electro-optic activity and tried to stabilize them. Electro-optic activity is the ability of the material to get to an excited state to convert digital information into pulses of light in order to transmit data from point A to point B. Stability is really important because that is how you can get the repeatability and consistent properties to commercialize the materials. They found that was very difficult. The way Lightwave Logic approached this was to create a very stable material, both thermally and photo-chemically, so it could withstand heat and ambient conditions for device fabrication processes and long term stability of electro-optic materials in devices. Our founder, Dr. Goetz then determined a way to excite that material to get it highly electro-optically active. He took a 180 degree approach from the rest of the world.

CEOCFO: You said earlier that you are closer than you have ever been. What are the next steps?

Mr. Zelibor: For the first half of this year, we will take the materials that we are producing and put them into prototype photonic devices and test them ourselves. Once we show some good results there, we will get them in the hands of potential customers so they can put those devices through the paces. Once that is done, we are on a path toward commercialization, which has been our objective all the way along.

CEOCFO: Who might be the initial customers? Are there particular applications that might lend themselves to early use?

Mr. Zelibor: One of the hot topics around that is cloud computing and data centers. We feel that the real potential is with the companies that have larger data centers that really need to improve the throughput, reduce the power requirements and improve the speed at which you can transmit data. Anybody who is in the telecommunications or data communications markets is our initial target.

CEOCFO: Are the people who you are going to target particularly early on aware of what you have done so far?

Mr. Zelibor: I would say the industry in general is probably not aware, but there are specific players who are very aware of what we are doing. We have been working with one of them for over two years under an NDA to help them advance their proprietary devices using our materials.

CEOCFO: Are you funded for the next steps?

Mr. Zelibor: We have a funding vehicle through Lincoln Park Capital for $20 million dollars to take us to commercialization. We are also looking for other institutional investment.

CEOCFO: Different industries and areas tend to go in and out of favor with investors. Where do you see yourself today? In general, is it an area that people tend to be looking at? Are people more receptive or is it going to be an uphill battle?

Mr. Zelibor: I would say it is neither one. It is kind of right in the middle. When we show the results and the performance that we think we can, and that we are going to, we will get the resources and funding we need. The telecom market for example, is something that has come and gone, and now it is coming back again. That is not our number one target. I am very focused on the data communications market because you can get a higher volume of sales there and it is also the one that has the most difficulty right now in dealing with the future needs.

CEOCFO: Are you looking primarily in the US at this point?

Mr. Zelibor: At this point, yes.

CEOCFO: How are you able to patent protect what you have developed or do you feel the need for it?

Mr. Zelibor: Yes, absolutely. The science is our lifeblood, and the company has submitted 32 patents. Most all these patent applications are covering our materials and the structure of our material. We have six issued patents so far – four in the US, one in Japan and one in Australia. Those six patents all cover our materials and the structure of those materials.

CEOCFO: Your site shows applications for military and defense as well as optical commuting beyond the telecom. What are some of the other potential areas for you?

Mr. Zelibor: There are some pretty exciting ones. Some of our materials have characteristics that are called third order properties. What that means is instead of having an electronics package that is required to excite the material and get the non-linear electro-optic activity, we actually have some materials that can be activated by light. Essentially, you have light switched by light. That can be very exciting to the market because one of the other areas that has been talked about for many years is having an all-optical computer or all-optical switches. The reason that is important is because when you do not have an electronics package – it significantly reduces power requirements. That is not the part that is exciting. What is exciting is that when you have light switching light to create the modulation, the speed of the photonic devices can increase by orders of magnitude. Where that becomes important is in high-speed computing. For a military application, it is being able to do imagery processing of millions of frames per second versus 60 to 100 frames per second on some current capabilities. The potential becomes limitless when you look at it because the company’s ultimate objective is to penetrate multiple niche markets. You can do that with some of our new capabilities.

CEOCFO: Exciting times!

Mr. Zelibor: It absolutely is. I think we are right at the precipice of really making a run at this; we have a good intellectual property base, an exciting technology and a future market that really bodes well for the company.

CEOCFO: What have you learned in your military experience that is most helpful in running the company and bringing a product to market? What translates over?

Mr. Zelibor: I think the biggest thing for me is that I am not the guy who is going to build the chemical structures or the devices. My strength is in the leadership aspect and having a focus and vision to get people all on the same path with the same objectives. The biggest thing from the technology standpoint is that I can see the possibilities from an operational perspective–what the applications of these devices are and what they could do to help not just the military, but on the commercial side as well. I view this as “the art of the possible” because I know where we have needed material or devices that have these kinds of capabilities. That is where it gets really exciting for me. You have to be an out of the box thinker and really see what the potential is of something like this if it got to the market in the right way.

CEOCFO: Put it all together for our readers, why pay attention to Lightwave Logic today?

Mr. Zelibor: First, we have a groundbreaking approach to address the needs of multibillion dollar markets. Second, we have assembled a really good management team, scientists, device engineers and a first class group of industry consultants who are capable of bringing this across the finish line. Even though our materials are addressing extremely exciting market opportunities in telecom and datacom, there are even more exciting and disruptive applications this technology can make feasible, which could create tremendous growth for us in areas that were once only conceptual. And, lastly we are now in the beginning stages of commercial development. We think we are bargain, and once we get things across the finish line and moving this forward, we are not going to be a bargain anymore.

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