Samsung advances silicon photonics
Samsung Electronics is strengthening its silicon photonics and co-packaged optics (CPO) capabilities by establishing in-house testing infrastructure for photonic integrated circuit (PIC) wafers.
The South Korean technology company has reportedly installed probe station equipment from US-based FormFactor and Taiwan's MPI Corporation to support PIC wafer testing. The two companies are among the suppliers whose equipment has been qualified for TSMC's CPO-related testing activities.
Samsung is using the equipment to evaluate its first-generation silicon photonics designs, measuring wafer-level optical and electrical performance and feeding the results back into the design process.
The company previously relied on external organisations, including Belgium-based research institute imec, for aspects of PIC wafer validation.
The move is part of Samsung's plan to complete its in-house PIC validation by the end of 2026 and subsequently expand testing to optical engines that combine photonic integrated circuits with electronic integrated circuits (EICs).
Testing of these optical engines is expected to begin in 2027, with time-domain measurements used to assess high-speed data transmission.
A silicon photonics probe station provides precise optical and electrical connections between measurement equipment and devices on a PIC wafer. Optical alignment is particularly important for evaluating the performance of photonic components and their ability to convert between electrical and optical signals.
Samsung is also progressing toward commercial silicon photonics manufacturing. Its foundry division has reportedly secured an order from a major optical communications module manufacturer, with volume production expected in the second half of 2026.
The company plans to introduce silicon photonics foundry services in 2027, including optical component processes, component libraries and process design kits (PDKs). These services are intended to allow customers to design PICs and manufacture them through Samsung's foundry.
Samsung's longer-term CPO roadmap involves integrating optical engines with logic processors and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) within a single package.
The approach could extend CPO beyond networking switches to GPUs, CPUs and other AI computing platforms, where higher bandwidth and lower power consumption are becoming increasingly important.
The development places Samsung in growing competition with other semiconductor manufacturers pursuing silicon photonics and CPO.
TSMC is already developing its COUPE platform, while companies across the semiconductor, optical and packaging supply chains are working to address the manufacturing and testing challenges associated with integrating optical and electronic devices.
