SEMICON Taiwan to spotlight silicon photonics, CPO commercialization

Taipei, Aug. 30 (CNA) Silicon photonics and co-packaged optics (CPO), technologies seen as critical to meeting the surging bandwidth demands of AI infrastructure, will be among the main themes at SEMICON Taiwan, which opens Wednesday, with technical forums beginning Monday, the event organizer said Sunday.

The three-day event is expected to set records in terms of the number of participants, with organizer Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) projecting more than 1,300 exhibitors from 65 countries across 4,300 booths and over 100,000 attendees.

Optical interconnects underpinning AI infrastructure will be one of the highlights, with contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s (TSMC) Compact Universal Photonic Engine (COUPE) platform and the industry's progress toward mass CPO production expected to draw attention, the organizer said.

As AI chips, high-performance computing processors and high-bandwidth memory demand faster data transmission, conventional electrical interconnects are increasingly giving way to optical communications to boost AI data center efficiency.

SEMI said the industry is moving beyond chip-level speeds to upgrading rack-to-rack links, as copper interconnects near their physical limits in bandwidth, power consumption and transmission distance.

Silicon photonics, which uses optical rather than electrical signals, can cut power consumption and data transfer costs, making 2026 a key year for large-scale deployment, SEMI said.

The technology can integrate photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with electronic integrated circuits (EICs), while co-packaged optics (CPO) technology enables optical engines and switches to be packaged together.

In AI and high-performance computing chip systems, advanced packaging technologies can also integrate graphics processing units (GPUs), AI accelerators, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM), enabling optoelectronic integration with high bandwidth, low latency and low power consumption while overcoming limitations in bandwidth, power consumption and transmission performance.

TSMC has been expanding its COUPE platform and "COUPE on Substrate" CPO solution, with related products entering production this year.

American AI chip designer Nvidia Corp. has partnered with TSMC on COUPE and begun shipping next-generation Spectrum-X switches using CPO technology, with production expected to ramp up in the second half of the year.

Market research firm TrendForce said in an analysis report published in late July that Nvidia's Spectrum-X shipments and Broadcom Inc.'s initial deliveries of its 51.2-terabit Bailly CPO switch show CPO has entered the mass-production stage.

Taiwanese firms are also accelerating commercialization. United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) completed its first mass-produced silicon photonics wafers at its Singapore fab with partner SILITH, while GlobalWafers Co. said some products entered volume production earlier this year, according to the report.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (Foxconn) expects to begin gradual CPO switch shipments in the third quarter, while affiliate ShunSin Technology Holdings Ltd. said it has achieved mass-production capability for 51.2-terabit and 102.4-terabit CPO products through its TSMC optical-engine collaboration.

Powertech Technology Inc., which is partnering with Broadcom, plans low-volume optical engine component production this year before integrating them into CPO switches in 2027.

Largan Precision Co. is preparing trial production of its first automated CPO line after securing a fiber-array order.

Testing suppliers are expanding too. Materials Analysis Technology Inc. is installing advanced silicon photonics testing equipment, while ASE Technology Holding Co. is building out its CPO ecosystem through subsidiaries and its VIPack packaging platform, according to the report.

SEMICON Taiwan 2026 will run Sept. 2-4 at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, with related events taking place from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4.