Tower Semiconductor and NewPhotonics announced high-volume shipment of laser-integrated serviceable optical engines. The devices are designed for high-bandwidth, energy-efficient optical interconnects in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The PIC optical engine chips support OEM solutions ranging from FRO/LRO/LPO and Extra-Dense Packaged Optics (XPO) pluggable transceiver modules and Near-Packaged Optics (NPO) socket pluggable applications. Current volume production PICs support data rates from 800G to 1.6T, with future volume manufacturing planned at 6.4T NPO solutions for scale-out and scale-up architectures.
The collaboration uses the PH18DA silicon photonics (SiPho) technology platform featuring heterogeneously integrated InP components. This enables monolithic integration of lasers, semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), modulators, and photodetectors on a single photonic integrated circuit.
Volume shipment of NewPhotonics NPG102 PIC products for 800G and 1.6T feature 200G-per-lane designs and heterogeneously integrated lasers on a monolithic PIC. The CPX-MSA compliant NPC505 chipsets for 6.4T will begin volume shipment in the first half of 2027.
Doron Tal, SVP and GM of NewPhotonics, said: “The next phase of AI infrastructure demands optical connectivity that scales in both production and performance. With Tower, we are translating laser-integrated photonics into a practical choice and volume availability. By combining our optical chip design with their manufacturing platform, we are first to bring higher-bandwidth, energy-efficient highly integrated systems to the OEM customer and data center market.”
Dr. Ed Preisler, Vice President and General Manager of the RF Business Unit at Tower Semiconductor, said: “We are excited to see our vision of integrating lasers with high-performance photonic integrated circuits come to fruition through scale-ready solutions optimized for FRO/LRO and NPO architectures. NewPhotonics is a valued partner and the first to bring heterogenous laser-integrated optical engines on the PH18DA platform into high-volume production, marking an important milestone in scaling optical connectivity for next-generation AI infrastructure.”
Both companies participating in ECOC 2026, September 21–23 at FYCMA in Malaga, Spain. Tower Semiconductor will be at booth #C1014. NewPhotonics will showcase the NPG102 and NPC505 PIC products in Pavilion 2 stand #2009.
