SEMI: 2026 Marks the Inaugural Year for Scaled Silicon Photonics Deployment; Optical Interconnects Key to Mass Production.

2026/04/10

TechNews Report

March 31, 2026
Author: Chang Chien-chung, Central News Agency

The SEMI Silicon Photonics Industry Alliance held a forum today. SEMI Global Marketing Director and Taiwan President Tsao Shih-lun stated that 2026 is a crucial year for the large-scale deployment of silicon photonics technology, and overcoming the mass production bottleneck of optical interconnect technology has become the industry's most pressing issue.

The Silicon Photonics Industry Alliance, under the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), held the "Silicon Photonics Mass Production Revolution – The Optical Future of AI Data Centers" forum today. The forum brought together key companies in the industry chain, including TSMC, ITRI, Coherent, Lianjun Optoelectronics, Sumitomo Electric Industries, and Advantest, to comprehensively analyze the two core hurdles to mass production of silicon photonics and current solutions.

Tsao Shih-lun said that SEMI's initial intention in establishing the Silicon Photonics Industry Alliance was to bring together key partners in the industry chain, integrate the resources of each link, and assist the industry in advancing silicon photonics from technology verification to large-scale commercialization. This forum focused on two core hurdles in optoelectronic packaging: precision and testing infrastructure, inviting key industry partners to provide in-depth analysis.

TSMC shared the latest technological advancements in its Compact Universal Photonic Engine (COUPE) and Common Packaging Optics (CPO) architectures. Hou Shang-yong, Director of Advanced Packaging Integration at TSMC, stated that the advancement of CPO technology requires collaborative innovation across all links of the supply chain.

Hou Shang-yong pointed out that TSMC's COUPE platform System-on-Chips (SoIC) heterogeneously integrates and stacks electronic integrated circuits and photonic integrated circuits. Mass production is planned for this year, marking the formal transition of silicon photonics packaging from verification to commercial deployment.

Hou Shang-yong said that breakthroughs in three key areas—wafer testing, fiber array units, and high-speed optical packaging assembly—will be crucial to the successful large-scale deployment of CPO. TSMC looks forward to the cross-enterprise collaboration framework of the SEMI Silicon Photonics Industry Alliance, working with industry partners to jointly promote the establishment of relevant standards and the implementation of mass production.

The Coherent conference analyzed the core optics driving the development of silicon photonics, Sumitomo Electric Industries shared its special fiber optic solutions supporting large-scale deployments in AI data centers, and Lianjun Optoelectronics shared its practical experience in advanced optoelectronic packaging and testing applications.

Image Source: Freepik

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