Tower Semiconductor and Innolight partner on silicon photonics for AI
The foundry says its new platform halves the laser requirements for streamlined, high-volume optical module production, supporting the rapidly growing demands on datacentres
Tower Semiconductor, a foundry of high-value analogue semiconductor solutions, and Innolight, a company focusing on high-speed optical transceivers, have announced their expanded collaboration utilising Tower’s newest silicon photonics platform, now in production and ramping to high volume. According to Tower, this technology dramatically reduces the number of external optical components, cutting the number of lasers required per module by half, simplifying optical module design and enhancing cost and supply chain efficiency for AI and datacentre applications.
With increasing demand for high-speed optical connectivity in AI-driven datacentres, Innolight and Tower Semiconductor are strengthening their long-standing partnership with the goal of delivering cost-efficient, high-performance solutions that address the needs of 100G-per-lane (400G/800G), 200G-per-lane (1.6T) today and 400G-per-lane (3.2T) optical modules in the future. Leveraging Tower’s new silicon photonics platform, the solution significantly boosts scalability, performance, and cost-effectiveness for AI-driven datacentres and cloud infrastructure.
“Innolight has been leading the high-speed optical module market, and our collaboration with Tower enables us to pioneer new silicon photonics solutions for AI and datacentre applications,” said Sheng Liu, CEO of Innolight. “Utilising Tower’s new silicon photonics platform, we deliver superior performance, cost, and supply chain resilience for our hyperscale customers. Our partnership with Tower continues to yield best in class offerings.”
Tower says its next-generation silicon photonics platform offers industry-leading edge coupling efficiency and higher-performance modulators, innovations that enable the elimination of half of the external lasers per module. Thus, the platform not only reduces cost and complexity but also improves system reliability and supply chain robustness, the company adds.
“We are honoured to deepen our collaboration with Innolight demonstrating the strength of our partnership and our shared commitment to delivering innovative and customised silicon photonics solutions,” said Russell Ellwanger, CEO of Tower Semiconductor. “Our continued investment in silicon photonics technology development and capacity expansion reinforces our leadership and enables our customers to lead in delivering high-performance solutions that meet the evolving needs of AI and datacentre markets.”
