Tower teams up with Alcyon Photonics to accelerate PIC innovation
By combining Alcyon’s proprietary design techniques with Tower’s silicon photonics technology, the companies plan to offer customers consistent, high-yield results
Tower Semiconductor and Alcyon Photonics have announced a new partnership, through which Alcyon Photonics will provide customers with silicon-validated, high-performance photonic building blocks and circuits to accelerate the development of next-generation optical applications.
Leveraging Tower Semiconductor’s high-volume silicon photonics platform, the companies say this collaboration enables the development of robust, silicon-proven photonic IP, facilitating a seamless transition from concept to production while ensuring exceptional performance, reliability, and manufacturability. According to the companies, Alcyon’s proprietary design techniques, optimised for Tower’s silicon photonics technology, provide significant competitive advantages, including outstanding stability that maintains channel drifts below 3 nm even with fabrication variations of up to 30 nm. Joined with Tower’s high-volume silicon photonics manufacturing capabilities, this partnership aims to provide customers with consistent, high-yield results, enabling efficient and cost-effective photonic integration.
“We are thrilled to partner with Tower Semiconductor to deliver best-in-class photonic IP to the market,” said Jimena García-Romeu, CEO of Alcyon Photonics. “By combining our advanced photonics design expertise with Tower’s industry-leading foundry SiPho technology, we are enabling customers to create compelling new applications with a faster and more predictable development cycle.”
The new collaboration focuses on bringing specific advancements to market, including CWDM solutions optimised for datacentre networking in the O band, which support high-capacity and high-performance optical interconnects. Additionally, the partnership is working to drive advancements in coherent communications across the C+L bands, expanding bandwidth, enhancing scalability, and future-proofing optical networks.
“Tower Semiconductor is committed to fostering a strong ecosystem that supports our customers in accelerating their photonic innovation,” said Samir Chaudhry, vice president of customer design enablement at Tower Semiconductor. “Collaborating with Alcyon Photonics as an IP partner further reinforces Tower Semiconductor’s leadership in silicon photonics, strengthening our offering by providing validated, high-performance photonic components that will help drive the next wave of integrated photonics applications.”
