TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — United Microelectronics Corp. has begun producing silicon photonics chips in Singapore as demand for high-speed connectivity for AI applications grows, Nikkei Asia reported Tuesday.
UMC Senior Vice President Hung Kuei-chun (洪圭鈞) said silicon photonics and co-packaged optics will be key growth drivers over the next several years. Photonic chips use light instead of electrical signals to transmit data, enabling faster communication, greater bandwidth, and lower power consumption than conventional chips.
Hung said the company has moved production from traditional 8-inch wafers to more advanced 12-inch wafers, improving power efficiency and performance.
Singapore-based Silith Technology will be UMC’s first major customer for the new production line, per Nikkei Asia. Silith supplies photonic chips to optical transceiver manufacturers including Innolight and Coherent, which are key suppliers to AI companies such as Nvidia and Google.
UMC said the partnership combines Silith’s expertise in silicon photonics design with UMC’s 12-inch wafer process capabilities to support mass production of Silith’s 1.6-terabit-per-second solutions, per UDN.
Hung said UMC is also working with Belgium-based research institute IMEC to establish a silicon photonics manufacturing platform that will allow more customers to adopt the technology beginning in 2027. The company also plans to launch advanced packaging services next year that integrate photonic chips with interposers to improve data transmission speeds.
Looking ahead, Hung said UMC aims to introduce an open silicon photonics platform by 2028 to support a wider range of optical chip designs. The company is also developing thin-film lithium niobate chiplets, which offer faster data transmission and reduced heat generation for AI data centers.
Hung said Singapore has become UMC’s key hub for photonic chip development and advanced packaging alongside Taiwan, per Liberty Times. The company has assigned more than 100 employees to the business and plans to continue expanding its workforce there over the next several years.
Unlike TSMC which focuses on leading-edge manufacturing, UMC specializes in mature-node chips used in applications such as power management, sensors, and microcontrollers. The company recently raised prices, citing higher material costs, as demand tied to AI infrastructure continues to support growth.
