UMC and SILITH Achieve First Mass Production of Silicon Photonics in Singapore
Source: UMC / Business Wire
Taiwan's second-largest contract chipmaker UMC has delivered the first mass-produced silicon photonics wafers from its Singapore 12-inch fab, marking a major step change in manufacturing high-speed optical interconnect technology critical for AI data centre infrastructure.
Taiwan's second-largest contract chipmaker, United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), has delivered the first mass-produced silicon photonics wafers from its Singapore 12-inch fabrication facility, the company announced Tuesday. Produced in collaboration with Singapore-based fabless company SILITH Technology, the milestone moves silicon photonics — a technology that uses light rather than electrical signals to transmit data between chips — from development into high-volume manufacturing for AI infrastructure.
The partnership combines 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 1.6T silicon photonics platform from development to production readiness in just 18 months, and the platform has since been qualified by a leading cloud infrastructure customer for volume deployment. UMC and SILITH are already extending their roadmap to support next-generation 400G-per-lane optical interconnects.
Silicon photonics is emerging as a foundational technology for AI data centres, where the bandwidth demands of training and inference workloads are outpacing what traditional copper-based electrical interconnects can deliver. By manufacturing photonic integrated circuits at scale in Singapore, UMC and SILITH are positioned to serve hyperscale cloud providers racing to expand AI infrastructure. UMC's Singapore fab also serves as a key technology development hub for the foundry, enabling rapid production ramp with SILITH.
Why it matters for Singapore: The milestone reinforces Singapore's role as a critical node in the global semiconductor supply chain, particularly for advanced packaging and specialty manufacturing. Singapore already hosts fabrication facilities from GlobalFoundries, Micron, and now UMC's silicon photonics line, alongside a growing ecosystem of fabless chip design companies like SILITH. As AI-driven demand reshapes the semiconductor landscape, Singapore's mix of manufacturing capability, IP protection, and talent base makes it an increasingly attractive location for high-value chip production that sits between cutting-edge logic and mature-node foundry work.