Tower Semiconductor and LightIC Collaborate on Silicon Photonics for FMCW LiDAR in Physical AI and Automotive Applications

Tower Semiconductor, a foundry of high-value analog semiconductor solutions, and LightIC Technologies, a developer of silicon photonics–based FMCW LiDAR solutions, announced a strategic collaboration. The partnership leverages Tower’s mature silicon photonics platform to support LightIC’s Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) LiDAR products, including the Lark long-range automotive LiDAR and the FR60 compact LiDAR for robotics and Physical AI applications.

According to research from Yole Group, the global automotive LiDAR market is projected to grow from $859 million in 2024 to $3.6 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24%. This growth forms part of the broader LiDAR market, expected to reach $6.3 billion by 2027 as the technology extends into industrial automation, smart infrastructure, and robotics.

The scaling of AI data-center networking has advanced silicon photonics maturity and manufacturability, facilitating its use in systems with integrated optical functionality. Tower Semiconductor’s silicon photonics platform, used in AI infrastructure deployments, supports extension into sensing-driven Physical AI and automotive applications. LightIC Technologies uses this platform for FMCW LiDAR, integrating optical functions for coherent ranging and instantaneous velocity sensing onto silicon. As silicon photo...