Accelerating High-Volume Silicon Photonics Manufacturing for AI Infrastructure
UMC delivers first mass-produced silicon photonics wafers from UMC's Singapore 12-inch fab, marking a step change from development to high-volume manufacturing.
The collaboration combines SILITH's silicon photonics innovation with UMC's high-volume 12-inch manufacturing platform.
UMC's silicon photonics process integration is a scalable, foundry-ready manufacturing platform—aimed at delivering predictable cost, yield, and ramp timelines for customers building next-generation AI data center optical interconnects
SINGAPORE & HSINCHU, Taiwan, July 14, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SILITH Technology, a silicon photonics fabless company, and United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303) ("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced the first mass-production wafer delivery of photonic ICs from UMC's Singapore fab, advancing the partnership between the two companies to scale next-generation silicon photonics manufacturing. The collaboration combines SILITH's photonics design expertise with UMC's 12-inch wafer manufacturing capacity and process capabilities to support high-volume production of SILITH's 1.6T silicon photonics platform, addressing the growing demand for high-speed AI optical interconnects in AI and hyperscale data center networks.
Combining SILITH's proprietary silicon photonics architecture with UMC's advanced process integration expertise and proven silicon-on-insulator (SOI) manufacturing capabilities, the joint team brought the silicon photonics platform from development to production readiness in 18 months. The platform has demonstrated production-level performance with high yield and reliability, and has since been qualified by a leading cloud infrastructure customer for volume deployment. Together, the two companies have established a scalable manufacturing platform to support the next generation of AI infrastructure.
Jason Zhang, Chief Technology Officer of SILITH, said: "AI is driving an unprecedented demand for optical bandwidth, making silicon photonics a foundational technology for future data center infrastructure. At SILITH, we are building a scalable silicon photonics platform that spans pluggable optics, co-packaged optics (CPO), and future optical I/O architectures. Together with UMC, we are bringing together leading-edge silicon photonics innovation and high-volume 12-inch manufacturing to deliver the performance, scalability, and cost efficiency required for the next generation of AI networks."