Taipei: United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), the second largest contract chipmaker in Taiwan, announced on Tuesday that it has commenced mass production of silicon photonics wafers at its 12-inch wafer fab located in Singapore. In a significant development, UMC revealed that the initial batch of these wafers has been produced in collaboration with Singapore-based silicon photonics fabless firm, Silith Technology, which has already taken delivery of the products.

According to Focus Taiwan, the collaboration between UMC and Silith Technology integrates Silith's photonics design acumen with UMC's extensive 12-inch wafer production capacity and process capabilities. This partnership is set to support the high-volume production of Silith's 1.6 terabits per second (1.6T) silicon photonics platform, addressing the increasing demand for high-speed AI optical interconnects in AI and hyperscale data center networks.

UMC highlighted that through the combination of its advanced process integration expertise and Silith's proprietary silicon photonics architecture, both companies successfully brought the silicon photonics platform from development to production in approximately 18 months. G.C. Hung, UMC's Senior Vice President, expressed pride in the collaboration with Silith, noting Singapore's role as a vital technology development hub for the company, which facilitated the rapid production ramp with Silith.

Hung further mentioned that UMC is committed to enhancing its manufacturing capabilities to meet the growing demands of its customers and to accelerate the development of next-generation photonics applications. Building on the successful commercialization of Silith's 200G/lane silicon photonics products, UMC and Silith are now extending their silicon photonics roadmap to support future 400G/lane optical interconnects.