Tower Semiconductor and NewPhotonics Initiate High-Volume Shipments of Laser-Integrated PICs for 800G/1.6T AI Interconnect

September 20, 2026

Unite.AI USA

Overview

Tower Semiconductor and NewPhotonics have commenced high-volume shipments of laser-integrated optical engine Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) for AI interconnect applications, supporting 800G to 1.6T data rates. These PICs leverage Tower’s PH18DA Silicon Photonics Platform, which monolithically integrates indium phosphide lasers, modulators, and photodetectors onto a single silicon chip. This advancement promises enhanced power efficiency and performance for AI data center networking, addressing the critical demand for higher bandwidth and lower latency.

In Depth

Key Findings

Tower Semiconductor and NewPhotonics have marked a significant milestone in AI interconnect technology by initiating high-volume shipments of laser-integrated optical engine Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). These advanced PICs are designed to support data rates ranging from 800G to 1.6T, directly addressing the burgeoning demands of next-generation AI data centers. The integration of lasers directly onto the PICs is a crucial breakthrough, eliminating traditional bottlenecks in optical transceiver modules and leading to substantial improvements in power efficiency and overall performance.

Technical / Clinical Details

The newly commercialized PICs are built upon Tower Semiconductor’s PH18DA Silicon Photonics Platform, a cutting-edge technology characterized by its heterogeneous integration capabilities. This platform allows for the monolithic integration of high-performance indium phosphide (InP) optical components, such as lasers, modulators, and photodetectors, directly onto a silicon chip. This innovative approach results in miniaturized optical engines, reduced manufacturing costs, and enhanced reliability. These PICs are compatible with widely adopted pluggable transceiver modules like QSFP-DD800 and OSFP-800, and are also engineered to support future Co-packaged Optics (CPO) and Near-packaged Optics (NPO) socket pluggable solutions, promising to revolutionize chip-to-chip and rack-to-rack communication within AI clusters.

Background & Context

The exponential growth of AI workloads has intensified the challenges associated with bandwidth, latency, and power consumption in data center interconnects. Traditional electrical interconnects are increasingly struggling to keep pace with scaling requirements, making a transition to optical communication inevitable. Silicon photonics, benefiting from mature semiconductor manufacturing processes, offers a compelling solution due to its cost-efficiency and scalability. The collaboration between Tower and NewPhotonics leverages advanced materials science and semiconductor fabrication expertise to bring high-performance optical interconnects to fruition for the AI era.

Strategic Significance & Outlook

The high-volume shipment of these laser-integrated PICs is set to profoundly impact both the design and operational aspects of AI data centers. By enabling faster and more energy-efficient interconnects, these solutions will allow for the full potential of GPUs and AI accelerators to be realized, thereby accelerating the training and inference of large-scale AI models. It is anticipated that such integrated photonics solutions will become a standard component of AI infrastructure, contributing significantly to reducing data center power consumption and improving cost efficiency. This success also solidifies the growing presence of silicon photonics in the broader optical communication market.

Source: https://www.unite.ai/tower-and-newphotonics-ship-laser-integrated-pics-for-ai-interconnect/

Get our weekly technology intelligence — free

Receive an infographic that lets you judge at a glance whether each field’s analysis report is worth reading.

Subscribe Free — Weekly Tech Intelligence

By subscribing, you’ll receive Troy-Technical’s weekly technology intelligence newsletter.