UMC and SILITH Partner on Silicon Photonics for AI Data Centers

UMC and SILITH are shipping Sipho wafers, combining silicon photonics technology with UMC’s 12-inch manufacturing capabilities. The collaboration aims to deliver cost-effective, high-volume production of optical interconnects for artificial intelligence and hyperscale data centers.

The companies transitioned the silicon photonics platform from development to production in 18 months and secured qualification from a major cloud infrastructure provider for deployment. The partnership focuses on a 1.6T silicon photonics platform, initially commercializing 200G/lane products and expanding to 400G/lane optical interconnects.

UMC will also offer its 12-inch silicon photonics platform to customers for development in 2027. Beyond silicon, UMC is exploring thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) solutions with partners for even higher bandwidth applications. These combined platforms, silicon photonics and TFLN, will support advanced packaging technologies for future AI infrastructure.