Tower Semiconductor partners with LightIC to scale silicon photonics for FMCW LiDAR
Tower Semiconductor and LightIC Technologies have announced a strategic collaboration to expand the use of silicon photonics beyond AI data-center infrastructure into automotive, robotics and Physical AI sensing applications.
Under the agreement, LightIC will leverage Tower’s mature silicon photonics foundry platform to support the manufacturing of its Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) LiDAR products, including the Lark long-range automotive LiDAR and the FR60 compact LiDAR designed for robotics and Physical AI systems.
Silicon photonics has seen rapid process maturation driven by large-scale AI networking deployments, improving manufacturability and integration density. Tower’s silicon photonics platform, already widely used in AI infrastructure, will now be applied to sensing applications that require tightly integrated optical functionality. LightIC’s FMCW LiDAR technology integrates coherent optical functions for high-resolution ranging and instantaneous velocity sensing directly onto silicon, enabling compact and scalable LiDAR architectures.
According to Yole Group, the global automotive LiDAR market is expected to grow from $859 million in 2024 to $3.6 billion by 2030, with broader LiDAR applications across robotics, industrial automation and smart infrastructure projected to reach $6.3 billion by 2027. As silicon photonics-based FMCW LiDAR matures, it is expected to capture an increasing share of this market.
“We are excited to expand our silicon photonics market beyond AI infrastructure into new sensing applications,” said Ed Preisler, Vice President and General Manager of the RF Business Unit at Tower Semiconductor. “Our collaboration with LightIC is an important step toward bringing velocity-aware sensing to robotics, Physical AI and automotive markets.”
The partnership combines LightIC’s silicon photonic design expertise with Tower’s manufacturing platform to enable higher levels of optical integration while improving size, weight, power and cost metrics. The companies aim to support the transition of FMCW LiDAR from advanced development into qualified, high-volume production for real-world deployment.
“Tower’s silicon photonics process allows us to integrate complex coherent LiDAR functions on a scalable and manufacturable platform,” said Jie Sun, CEO and co-founder of LightIC. “This integration is essential for delivering commercially viable 4D FMCW LiDAR solutions for automotive and Physical AI applications.”
