Samsung enters SiPh foundry market
Roadmap from PICs to co-packaged optics signals push into next-generation data centre interconnects.
Samsung Electronics has formally announced its entry into the silicon photonics foundry market, unveiling a roadmap that spans photonic integrated circuits (PICs) to co-packaged optics (CPO) by 2030.
The company revealed its strategy at the Optical Fibre Communication Conference (OFC) 2026 in Los Angeles, marking the first official move by its foundry division into silicon photonics manufacturing.
Samsung said it has completed production readiness, including development of a process design kit (PDK), enabling immediate fabrication once customer designs are submitted. Manufacturing will be based on a 300mm wafer platform.
The roadmap begins with PIC production targeting applications such as pluggable optical modules and optical engines.
By integrating key optical components, including modulators, waveguides and photodiodes onto a single silicon chip, PICs reduce signal loss and improve performance compared with discrete solutions.
Samsung reported achieving data transmission speeds of 224 Gbps per lane for its modulators, positioning the platform for next-generation optical modules at 800G and 1.6T.
Looking ahead, the company plans to introduce optical engines using thermo-compression bonding in 2027, followed by hybrid copper bonding in 2028 to enable finer packaging integration.
A full turnkey CPO offering is targeted for 2029, integrating optics directly into switch packages to reduce power consumption and latency.
Samsung also highlighted its vertically integrated model as a key differentiator, combining memory, foundry, advanced packaging and silicon photonics capabilities within a single ecosystem.
The move places Samsung into an increasingly competitive field alongside established players such as Intel, STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries, as demand for optical interconnects accelerates with the growth of AI-driven data centre infrastructure.
