United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) and Singapore-based SILITH have successfully delivered their first batch of 1.6T silicon photonics wafers. The production milestone, achieved in 18 months, provides a scalable manufacturing platform for high-speed AI optical interconnects, with mass production already underway for global cloud infrastructure clients.
18-Month Development Timeline and Production Milestone
The collaboration between UMC and SILITH marks a significant shift toward the large-scale manufacturing of silicon photonics components. By integrating SILITH’s proprietary architecture with UMC’s 12-inch wafer manufacturing and process integration capabilities, the teams met their development-to-production goal in just 18 months.
The technology is specifically designed to meet the bandwidth demands of AI and hyperscale data center networks, supporting 1.6T (1.6 terabit per second) solutions.
Strategic Importance for AI Data Centers
Silicon photonics is increasingly viewed as a foundational technology for future data center infrastructure as AI processing pushes the limits of traditional electrical signaling. SILITH’s leadership emphasizes that the technology is critical for scaling optical bandwidth.
The partnership covers a broad roadmap, including pluggable optical modules, co-packaged optics (CPO), and future optical I/O architectures. UMC’s Singapore wafer facility served as the primary hub for this development, leveraging its existing 12-inch manufacturing and research infrastructure to facilitate the rapid transition from design to high-volume output.
UMC’s 2027 Roadmap and Future Platform Expansion
While the current milestone focuses on the 1.6T solution, UMC is already positioning itself for the next generation of optical interconnects. The company plans to offer its own proprietary 12-inch silicon photonics platform to a broader customer base by 2027.
Development is currently expanding to support 400G per-channel optical interconnects. This effort incorporates high-speed Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM) design architectures, which aim to maintain CMOS compatibility and cost-effectiveness while increasing throughput. Additionally, the company is collaborating with ecosystem partners on thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) solutions.
| Technology Focus | Objective |
|---|---|
| Silicon Photonics | Scaling to 400G per-channel interconnects |
| TFLN Integration | Supporting ultra-high bandwidth and CPO architectures |
| UMC Proprietary Platform | Commercial availability for 2027 |
By combining advanced packaging with these new silicon photonics and TFLN platforms, UMC intends to support highly integrated architectures such as CPO and optical I/O, which are essential for the next wave of AI infrastructure. The company’s senior vice president, Hong Gui-Jun, noted that this milestone highlights UMC’s capability to manage complex, cross-disciplinary process integration for large-scale production requirements.
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