Lightwave Logic, Inc.

Overview

Lightwave Logic, Inc. is a specialty materials and intellectual property company focused on the development and commercialization of proprietary electro-optic (“EO”) polymer materials designed to enable high-speed optical modulators for data communications and other photonic applications.

Our Perkinamine® family of EO polymer materials is engineered for integration into silicon photonics (“SiPh”) and other photonic integrated circuit (“PIC”) platforms. When incorporated into device architectures, these materials are designed to support high-speed, high-bandwidth optical modulation with lower drive voltage requirements relative to certain conventional silicon-based approaches and certain other traditional photonic material systems, including III-V–based compound semiconductor technologies. The electro-optic properties of these materials can allow shorter interaction lengths in modulator designs, which can contribute to more compact device footprints and increased integration density. In addition, our materials are intended to be compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (“CMOS”) fabrication processes, which may facilitate integration into established semiconductor foundry workflows. Reduced drive voltage operation may enable lower system-level power consumption and simplified driver electronics in specific implementations.

We do not manufacture optical transceivers, photonic devices, or complete optical modules. Instead, our strategy is to commercialize our technology through a combination of material sales, intellectual property licensing, process design kit (“PDK”) enablement, and royalty or other fee-based arrangements tied to customer production.

Our customers and prospective customers include semiconductor foundries, silicon photonics device designers, optical module manufacturers, and system integrators serving artificial intelligence (“AI”), cloud computing, data center, and telecommunications markets. We pursue customer adoption through a structured commercialization process designed to support evaluation, integration, qualification, and production readiness within established semiconductor manufacturing ecosystems.

As of January 2026, multiple customer programs are progressing through defined development stages under our commercialization framework. The timing and scale of potential production revenue depend on customer product qualification and adoption cycles, technical validation, manufacturing readiness, end-market demand, and broader industry conditions.

Our Electro-Optic Polymer Technology

Our technology platform is based on the design, synthesis, and integration of proprietary electro-optic polymer materials engineered to exhibit strong electro-optic (“EO”) activity, optical transparency in relevant wavelength bands, and compatibility with semiconductor fabrication processes.

Electro-optic polymers utilize engineered chromophore molecules embedded within a polymer matrix. When an electric field is applied, the optical properties of the material change in a manner that can be used to modulate light propagating through a waveguide structure. The strength of this electro-optic response, combined with the material’s processability, is central to device performance and manufacturability.

Our Perkinamine® materials are designed to:

Because electro-optic polymers can be applied directly within waveguide structures, they may allow modulator architectures with shorter interaction lengths compared to certain alternative material systems. Shorter interaction lengths can contribute to more compact device geometries and increased integration density within photonic integrated circuits.

The compatibility of our materials with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (“CMOS”) fabrication processes, including back-end-of-line integration flows, is designed to facilitate incorporation into silicon photonics platforms using established foundry infrastructure rather than requiring dedicated fabrication facilities.

We continue to invest in material optimization, including improvements in electro-optic efficiency, thermal stability, wavelengths expansion, environmental robustness, and process integration parameters. Material formulation, device architecture, and integration techniques are developed in parallel to support customer-specific performance and reliability requirements.

Commercial deployment of devices incorporating our materials depends on successful integration within customer and foundry process flows, achievement of reliability standards, and attainment of yield and cost targets.

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 may include 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.

Business Model - Material + IP Licensing

Our business model is centered on the commercialization of proprietary electro-optic polymer materials and related intellectual property through material supply and licensing arrangements.

We do not currently intend to manufacture finished optical transceivers, discrete photonic devices, or complete optical modules. Our strategy is to enable customers to incorporate our materials into their own device platforms and manufacturing ecosystems, leveraging established semiconductor foundry infrastructure.

Our revenue model may include one or more of the following components:

Material Sales

We supply EO polymer materials to customers for evaluation, prototyping, and potential commercial production. Material sales may occur during development phases as well as during volume manufacturing, subject to customer qualification and demand.

If customer programs transition to commercial production incorporating our materials, material revenue would be expected to scale with device volumes.

Intellectual Property Licensing

We may enter into licensing agreements covering aspects of our polymer compositions, device designs, integration processes, and related intellectual property. Licensing arrangements may include: upfront license fees, development or milestone-based payments, and field-of-use or application-specific licenses.

The structure and economics of such agreements vary depending on customer requirements and the scope of intellectual property granted.

Royalty or Production-Based Fees

In certain arrangements, we may receive royalties or other production-based payments tied to the manufacture or sale of devices incorporating our materials or licensed technology. The structure, rate, and duration of such payments depend on negotiated terms and customer product lifecycles.

There can be no assurance that any given customer program will result in royalty-bearing production.

Revenue Timing Considerations

Customer engagements typically progress through multi-stage development cycles. During early stages, revenue may consist primarily of material sales, non-recurring engineering (“NRE”) fees, prototype-related activities, or development support.

Based on the current status of customer programs, we anticipate that revenues, if any, recognized during 2026 would primarily relate to material supply, NRE arrangements, or prototype and development activities. We do not currently expect significant revenue from volume commercial production of customer products until 2027 at the earliest. The timing and magnitude of any production-related revenue depend on successful product qualification, yield validation, customer adoption decisions, end-market demand, and broader industry conditions.

There can be no assurance that development-stage programs will transition to volume production, that anticipated timelines will be achieved, or that commercial revenues will occur as expected.

Strategic Flexibility

While our current strategy is focused on materials supply and intellectual property licensing, we may evaluate selective opportunities to participate more directly in device-level development in limited circumstances. Such participation, if pursued, would likely be application-specific and would depend on market conditions, partnership opportunities, capital requirements, and strategic considerations.

We have not committed to entering device manufacturing as a core component of our business model, and any such activity would be evaluated in the context of our overall capital allocation priorities and commercialization strategy.

Operating Leverage

Our model is designed to leverage existing semiconductor fabrication infrastructure rather than require capital-intensive wafer fabrication facilities. By integrating into established foundry process flows, we seek to enable scalable production through customer and foundry manufacturing capacity.

If customer programs advance to high-volume production, incremental material demand and royalty streams may provide operating leverage due to the intellectual property-driven nature of our model. However, realization of such leverage depends on successful qualification, customer adoption, competitive dynamics, and end-market demand.

Commercialization Process (Design Win Cycle)

We pursue customer adoption through a structured, multi-stage engagement framework that we refer to as our Design Win Cycle. This process is designed to guide customer programs from initial technology evaluation through potential production ramp within established semiconductor manufacturing ecosystems.

While program timelines vary based on customer requirements, foundry schedules, application complexity, and market conditions, the Design Win Cycle typically spans approximately 18 to 24 months.

Progression between stages depends on the achievement of defined technical and commercial milestones. Advancement to later stages does not assure commercial production.

Stage 1 – Technology Selection

(Typically 3–6 Months)

During the Technology Selection stage, customers evaluate the suitability of our electro-optic polymer materials for their intended applications.

This stage is focused on determining whether our materials are appropriate for incorporation into the customer’s development roadmap.

Revenue during this stage, if any, may consist of material samples, evaluation kits, or limited technical support.

Stage 2 – Product Design

(Typically 3–6 Months)

If a customer elects to proceed, engagement advances to Product Design. During this stage, we support integration of our materials into the customer’s device architecture and semiconductor foundry process flow.

Progression from Stage 2 to Stage 3 typically requires successful completion of prototype design objectives and confirmation that fabrication resources are available. In certain cases, advancement may be gated by the availability of, and access to, a customer’s preferred semiconductor foundry, including allocation of wafer runs, process integration readiness, and foundry scheduling considerations.

Revenue during this stage may include material sales or non-recurring engineering (“NRE”) fees associated with development activities.

Stage 3 – Prototype to Final Product

(Typically 12–18 Months)

In this stage, customers fabricate and refine prototype devices incorporating our materials.

As of January 2026, three customer programs were engaged in this stage, with one customer requiring customization of our material platform to meet their specific application needs. Approximately fifteen additional customer engagements were in Stages 1 and 2.

Revenue during Stage 3, if any, may consist of material supply, NRE arrangements, or development-related activities. Entry into this stage does not guarantee transition to commercial production.

Stage 4 – Production Ramp to High Volume

If technical qualification, yield targets, and cost alignment objectives are achieved, programs may advance to production ramp.

Activities during this phase may include:

Commercial production typically requires achievement of customer-defined qualification milestones, acceptable manufacturing yields, cost targets, and confirmed end-market demand.

Based on the current status of customer programs, we anticipate that revenues, if any, recognized during 2026 would primarily relate to material supply, NRE arrangements, or prototype and development activities. We do not currently expect significant revenue from high-volume commercial production of customer products until 2027 at the earliest.

There can be no assurance that programs currently in development will successfully transition to commercial production, that foundry capacity will be available as anticipated, or that projected timelines will be achieved.

Market Opportunity (AI Networking, Hyperscale Data Centers and Telecommunications)

AI Networking and Hyperscale Data Centers

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (“AI”), machine learning workloads, and cloud computing applications is driving structural changes in data center architecture and networking design. AI training and inference systems require increasingly higher bandwidth, lower latency, and improved energy efficiency across dense computing environments. As AI clusters scale, networking performance has become a critical factor influencing system throughput, power consumption, and total cost of ownership.

Industry analysts project continued growth in the optical interconnect market serving hyperscale data centers. According to LightCounting and other industry research sources, the total addressable market (“TAM”) for optical transceivers supporting AI networking, data center, and related applications could reach approximately $24 billion annually by 2028, driven by transitions to 800G, 1.6T, and higher-speed architectures.

Within this broader market, the serviceable addressable market (“SAM”) for high-speed optical modulators represents a subset of overall optical engine and transceiver content. Based on internal company estimates informed by LightCounting research, we believe the SAM associated with high-speed modulators used in advanced data center interconnects could range from approximately $1 billion to $2.5 billion annually by 2028, depending on architecture mix, lane speeds, and adoption rates.

These estimates are based on published industry data and internal modeling assumptions. Actual market size, growth rates, and our potential participation in these markets depend on technology adoption, competitive dynamics, customer qualification cycles, and broader industry conditions.

Scale-Up, Scale-Out and Scale-Across Architectures

AI networking expansion occurs across three primary dimensions:

Scale-Up (Within the Rack)

Scale-up refers to high-bandwidth connectivity among processors, accelerators, and memory within a single server or rack. These connections require short-reach, ultra-high-speed interconnects operating within strict power and thermal envelopes.

In scale-up environments, electrical interconnect limitations are increasingly addressed through optical solutions. Modulators capable of high bandwidth, low drive voltage, and compact footprints may enable greater port density and reduced power consumption within rack-level architectures.

Scale-Out (Across Racks Within a Data Center)

Scale-out refers to connectivity between racks within a hyperscale data center. These links require higher aggregate bandwidth and reliable performance over longer distances relative to intra-rack connections.

As AI clusters expand, the number of deployed optical transceivers and modulator lanes increases significantly. Technologies that support higher per-lane data rates while managing power consumption and integration complexity are central to enabling scalable cluster growth.

Scale-Across (Between Data Centers)

Scale-across connectivity supports communication between geographically distributed data centers. These links typically rely on coherent optical systems and must support high aggregate throughput across longer distances.

Electro-optic polymer-based modulators may be relevant across all three scaling dimensions, subject to application-specific performance requirements and qualification standards.

Optical Transceivers and Co-Packaged Optics Architectures

Most data center optical interconnects today are implemented using pluggable optical transceivers. In this architecture, optical modules are inserted into network switches or servers through standardized electrical interfaces. The optical engine, including modulators, lasers, drivers, and receivers, is contained within a discrete pluggable module.

Pluggable transceivers offer flexibility and interoperability. However, as data rates increase, electrical trace lengths between the switch silicon and the pluggable module can introduce signal integrity challenges, increased power consumption, and thermal constraints.

Co-packaged optics (“CPO”) represents an alternative architectural approach in which optical engines are integrated more closely with switching silicon within the same package or substrate. By reducing electrical trace lengths, CPO architectures seek to improve signal integrity and power efficiency at higher data rates.

Both pluggable transceiver and CPO architectures rely on high-performance optical modulators as core functional components. Our electro-optic polymer materials are designed to support high-speed, high-bandwidth modulation with compact device geometries and CMOS-compatible integration, characteristics that may be relevant to both architectures, subject to customer qualification and system-level requirements.

The pace and extent of adoption of CPO relative to pluggable architectures remain dependent on ecosystem coordination, packaging technology readiness, cost considerations, and deployment strategies.

Transceiver Data Rates and Per-Lane Bandwidth

Optical transceiver performance is typically described using aggregate data rate designations, such as 400G, 800G, or 1.6T. These figures represent the total data throughput of the module. In practice, transceivers achieve these aggregate speeds by combining multiple parallel optical lanes, each operating at a defined per-lane data rate.

For example, a 1.6 terabit (“1.6T”) optical transceiver may be implemented using eight optical lanes operating at 200 gigabits per second (“200G”) per lane. Increasing per-lane bandwidth reduces the need to proportionally increase lane count, which can otherwise add complexity, footprint, power consumption, and packaging challenges.

Higher per-lane data rates require modulators capable of operating at increased bandwidth while maintaining signal integrity and acceptable power consumption. Our electro-optic polymer materials are designed to support high-speed, high-bandwidth optical modulation, which may be relevant as customers transition to higher per-lane data rates in next-generation transceiver and co-packaged optical architectures, subject to qualification and system-level integration requirements.

Telecommunications and Coherent Optical Systems

In addition to hyperscale AI data centers, optical modulators are used in coherent dense wavelength division multiplexing (“DWDM”) systems for long-haul, metro, and access networks. LightCounting has estimated that the market for coherent optical transceivers represents several billion dollars annually, including an estimated approximately $7 billion TAM for coherent DWDM applications referenced in our investor materials.

Electro-optic polymer materials may be applicable in certain coherent optical architectures, subject to performance validation and qualification requirements.

Emerging and Specialty Applications

Beyond data center and telecommunications markets, electro-optic materials may have potential applications in additional photonic domains, including quantum technologies, sensing, defense systems, and space communications. Published industry research has projected long-term growth in certain quantum computing, quantum communications, and quantum sensing markets, although adoption timelines and commercial maturity remain uncertain.

While our current commercialization efforts are primarily concentrated on AI-driven data center and telecommunications applications, we are also evaluating opportunities to participate selectively in emerging vertical markets. For example, we have publicly announced collaborative activities related to quantum photonic applications, including recent engagement with QPICs. These efforts are intended to explore the applicability of our materials in specialized photonic platforms and to position the Company for potential participation in evolving quantum ecosystems.

We expect that any participation in emerging or specialty applications would develop gradually and remain subject to technical validation, partnership development, capital allocation priorities, and overall strategic considerations.

Manufacturing and Foundry Integration Strategy

Our commercialization approach is designed to leverage established semiconductor fabrication infrastructure rather than require construction of proprietary wafer fabrication facilities. We do not operate semiconductor wafer fabrication plants. Instead, our electro-optic polymer materials are intended to be integrated into silicon photonics (“SiPh”) and related photonic integrated circuit (“PIC”) platforms at third-party semiconductor foundries.

This fabless materials model allows us to focus on material innovation, integration support, and intellectual property development while utilizing the manufacturing scale, process controls, and capacity of established semiconductor ecosystems.

Foundry Integration

Successful commercialization of devices incorporating our materials requires compatibility with customer-selected semiconductor foundries. Integration typically involves:

At present, certain BEOL polymer deposition and integration processes are performed at our facility in Englewood, Colorado to support development programs, prototyping activities, and early-stage customer engagements. As customer programs advance toward volume production, we expect to work with foundry partners to progressively transfer and qualify these BEOL integration steps within customer-preferred semiconductor fabrication environments, subject to technical validation and foundry readiness.

In certain cases, progression of customer programs may depend on availability of fabrication slots at customer-preferred foundries, allocation of wafer runs, process integration readiness, and foundry scheduling considerations. Because we do not control third-party foundry capacity or scheduling priorities, program timelines may be affected by semiconductor capacity constraints, customer allocation decisions, or shifts in foundry resource priorities.

Perkinamine Manufacturing and Supply

Our electro-optic polymer materials are synthesized and processed at our facility in Englewood, Colorado. Current operations support research, development, customer sampling, BEOL integration activities, and early-stage commercial supply.

As customer programs advance toward production ramp, material volume requirements may increase. Scaling production beyond current capacity could require additional capital investment, equipment procurement, workforce expansion, process automation, supplemental third-party manufacturing arrangements, and expanded foundry-based BEOL integration.

We maintain procurement relationships with suppliers of specialty chemical precursors and seek to manage supply chain risk through inventory planning and supplier diversification where feasible. While our materials are not dependent on rare-earth elements, our supply chain remains subject to general risks affecting specialty chemical sourcing, including geopolitical developments, transportation disruptions, regulatory changes, and supplier concentration.

Yield, Reliability, and Production Ramp

Transition to high-volume production requires achievement of customer-defined qualification milestones, acceptable manufacturing yields, and cost targets. In later stages of the Design Win Cycle, we support:

Production ramp may occur gradually as customers validate reliability under environmental and operational stress conditions and confirm end-market demand.

Based on the current status of customer programs, we anticipate that revenues, if any, recognized during 2026 would primarily relate to material supply, non-recurring engineering (“NRE”) arrangements, or prototype and development activities. We do not currently expect significant revenue from high-volume commercial production of customer products until 2027 at the earliest.

There can be no assurance that production ramp will occur on anticipated timelines, that foundry capacity will be available as required, or that customer qualification and yield targets will be achieved.

Scalability Across Deployment Architectures

As AI networking architectures expand across scale-up, scale-out, and scale-across applications, the number of deployed optical transceivers and modulator lanes may increase significantly. Our manufacturing model is intended to support scalability across these deployment dimensions by enabling customers to utilize established semiconductor fabrication capacity rather than relying on vertically integrated or specialized production facilities.

If customers transition to volume production incorporating our materials, incremental material demand may scale with transceiver volumes and per-lane deployment density, subject to architecture selection, foundry integration success, and customer design decisions.

Intellectual Property

Our Intellectual Property

Our research and development efforts over the past 10+ years have yielded our Company an extensive patent portfolio drawn to organic electro-optic (OEO) polymer materials, silicon photonics, and silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) slot modulator platforms (e.g., photonic integrated circuits (PICs), as well as critical, related trade secrets and proprietary knowledge. Our intellectual property portfolio has expanded significantly over the few years. We have actively filed technical utility patents and are currently in the process of readying a number of other inventions for formal filings in 2026 and 2027. We expect to continue innovating our technology 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 OEO polymer technology with fifteen 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 SOH and other OEO 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 OEO polymer technology with an innovative polymer chemistry device patent that has potential to increase the performance of integrated modulators through optical amplification in a PIC format 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 as of December 31, 2025, consists of 67 granted patents that include 45 from the US, 1 from Canada, 2 from the United Kingdom, 12 from the EU, 1 from Japan, 5 from China (including Hong Kong), and 1 from Korea.

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:

Our patent portfolio includes patents not only to 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. Included in our patent portfolio are the following device designs and fabrication methods:

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.

Layered Protection Strategy

Our intellectual property strategy is designed to provide multiple layers of protection:

By combining composition, process, and device-level protection, we seek to support commercialization through material supply, licensing arrangements, and potential royalty-bearing agreements.

Trade Secrets and Know-How

In addition to patent protection, we rely on trade secrets, proprietary know-how, and confidentiality agreements to protect aspects of our technology that may not be publicly disclosed.

These include:

Employees, contractors, and collaborators are typically subject to confidentiality and intellectual property assignment agreements.

Patent Term and Limitations

Issued patents have limited terms and are subject to expiration, challenge, invalidation, or circumvention. Issued patents expire on various dates from 2027 through 2044. The scope, enforceability, and commercial value of individual patents may vary by jurisdiction.

We cannot assure that our patent portfolio will prevent competitors from developing alternative technologies, that pending applications will mature into issued patents, or that issued patents will provide a sustained competitive advantage.

IP and Licensing Model Alignment

Our intellectual property portfolio supports our business model by enabling:

The structure and economics of such arrangements vary depending on negotiated terms and customer requirements.

Competition

The markets for optical modulators and silicon photonics technologies are highly competitive and characterized by rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, and significant capital investment. We compete with a range of companies developing alternative materials systems, device architectures, and integration approaches.

Many of our current and potential competitors are larger, more established companies with substantially greater financial, technical, manufacturing, and marketing resources. Some competitors operate their own wafer fabrication facilities or are vertically integrated across multiple layers of the photonics value chain.

Competing Technologies

Optical modulators may be implemented using several different material platforms and device structures, including:

Silicon-Based Modulators

Conventional silicon photonics modulators typically rely on carrier depletion or carrier injection effects within silicon waveguides. These approaches benefit from compatibility with established CMOS fabrication processes and large-scale foundry ecosystems. Ongoing development efforts seek to improve bandwidth, reduce power consumption, and enhance integration density.

Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN)

Thin-film lithium niobate technologies leverage the electro-optic properties of crystalline materials to achieve high-speed modulation. TFLN solutions have gained attention for bandwidth performance and may be deployed in both pluggable transceiver and advanced packaging architectures.

III-V Compound Semiconductor Devices

Indium phosphide and other III-V material systems are used in certain modulated laser and photonic device architectures. These technologies are widely deployed in telecommunications and coherent optical systems and benefit from long operational track records.

Other Emerging Materials and Architectures

Additional material platforms and hybrid integration approaches continue to be explored within the industry, including heterogeneous integration and novel electro-optic materials.

Architectural Tradeoffs and Industry Dynamics

The rapid growth of AI networking has placed significant performance and power-efficiency pressure on optical interconnect technologies. As aggregate data rates move toward 1.6T and beyond, industry participants are evaluating multiple architectural pathways to achieve required throughput.

Many development efforts are focused on increasing per-lane data rates through ultra-high-speed modulators capable of operating at 200G per lane and beyond. Higher per-lane bandwidth can reduce the number of required lanes, potentially lowering packaging complexity, footprint, and power consumption.

However, if ultra-high-speed modulation targets prove difficult to achieve reliably, economically, or at acceptable yields, system designers may adopt alternative scaling strategies. These may include increasing the number of parallel optical lanes while operating at lower per-lane speeds, sometimes referred to as “wide and slow” architectures. Such approaches can increase aggregate throughput by expanding lane count rather than pushing the performance limits of individual modulators.

The relative adoption of high-speed per-lane scaling versus wider parallel implementations will depend on technical feasibility, power budgets, packaging constraints, yield performance, and overall system economics.

Our electro-optic polymer materials are designed to support high-speed, high-bandwidth optical modulation and compact device geometries, which may be relevant in architectures prioritizing higher per-lane bandwidth. At the same time, broader architectural shifts toward increased parallelism could alter modulator content requirements, integration approaches, and competitive dynamics.

Competitive Factors

Adoption of optical modulation technologies depends on a range of technical and commercial factors, including:

While our materials are engineered to address several of these factors, competing technologies may improve over time, may offer advantages in certain applications, or may benefit from earlier market adoption and established customer relationships.

Market Adoption Considerations

Customers in the data center and telecommunications markets typically require extensive qualification cycles and long-term reliability validation before deploying new technologies. Switching costs, ecosystem inertia, and supplier relationships may influence technology selection decisions.

Even where performance advantages are demonstrated, adoption may depend on:

There can be no assurance that our technology will achieve widespread market adoption or that it will displace incumbent solutions in any given application.

Human Capital

As of December 31, 2025, we employed 34 full-time employees (FTEs), excluding two employees that retired on December 31, 2025. Our workforce includes personnel engaged in research and development, materials synthesis, device integration, process engineering, quality control, business development, and general and administrative functions. Approximately 23 FTEs were engaged in research and development activities and 11 FTEs were engaged in selling, general and administrative functions.

Our technical team includes scientists and engineers with backgrounds in organic chemistry, polymer science, photonics, semiconductor process integration, materials engineering, and device design. Many members of our technical staff have prior experience in semiconductor manufacturing environments, silicon photonics development, or specialty materials commercialization.

Technical Expertise and Commercialization Focus

Our commercialization strategy requires cross-disciplinary expertise spanning materials chemistry, device physics, semiconductor process integration, reliability engineering, and customer support. As customer programs progress through the Design Win Cycle, our technical personnel support:

We continue to evaluate hiring needs based on program progression, manufacturing scale requirements, and strategic priorities.

Talent Retention and Competition

The markets in which we operate are characterized by competition for highly skilled technical personnel, particularly in semiconductor process engineering, photonics design, and advanced materials development. Our ability to attract, develop, and retain qualified employees is important to our long-term success.

We seek to foster a collaborative environment focused on innovation, technical rigor, and disciplined commercialization. Our compensation programs are designed to align employee interests with long-term stockholder value and may include equity-based incentives.

Workforce Development and Culture

We emphasize cross-functional collaboration among materials scientists, engineers, and commercial personnel to support integration within semiconductor manufacturing ecosystems. As we transition from research-focused activities toward commercialization and production ramp, we continue to evolve internal processes, documentation standards, and quality systems to support scalable operations.

We are committed to maintaining a safe working environment and complying with applicable labor, environmental, and safety regulations.

Facilities

Our principal executive offices and laboratory facilities are located in Englewood, Colorado. This facility supports research and development activities, electro-optic polymer synthesis, materials characterization, device integration, back-end-of-line (“BEOL”) process development, and early-stage commercial material supply.

The Englewood facility houses laboratory space, materials processing equipment, analytical instrumentation, and office space supporting scientific, engineering, and administrative functions. Current operations are designed to support customer evaluation programs, prototype support, BEOL integration activities, and limited commercial material production.

As customer programs advance toward potential high-volume production, additional capital investment, equipment procurement, facility expansion, or supplemental third-party manufacturing arrangements may be required to support increased material output and process scale.

We believe our existing facilities are adequate to support current operations. Future facility requirements will depend on commercialization progress, production ramp timelines, and strategic capital allocation decisions.

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. The waveguides allow the light to be efficiently coupled into and out of the modulators, and provide a basis for integrating modulators together.

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.

Available Information

We maintain a website at www.lightwavelogic.com. We make available on our website under “Investors” – “SEC Filings,” free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file or furnish such material with the SEC. References to our website in this report are provided as a convenience, and the information on our website is not, and shall not be deemed to be a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or incorporated into any other filings we make with the SEC. The SEC maintains an Internet site (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. In addition, we make available on our website under “Investors – Corporate Governance – Governance Documents”, free of charge, our Audit Committee Charter, Compensation Committee Charter, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Charter and Code of Ethics and Business Conduct.

We were incorporated under the laws of the State of Nevada on June 24, 1997. In 2004, we acquired PSI-TEC Corp., and in 2006 we merged with PSI-TEC Corp. In 2008, we changed our name to Lightwave Logic, Inc.