Tower Semiconductor and Innolight Put First Near-Package Optics Device Into Early Production

Tower Semiconductor and Innolight said on November 3, 2026 that Innolight's first Near-Package Optics device has entered early production on Tower's PH18M Silicon Photonics process at Tower's California factory. TradingView carried the announcement from the two companies.

How the Innolight NPO Production Works

The collaboration pairs Innolight's optical interconnect work with Tower Semiconductor's high-volume 200mm and 300mm Silicon Photonics manufacturing platforms. Innolight has also taped out multiple NPO products on Tower's 300mm platform to support future product generations.

NPO designs typically need far more optical channels than conventional pluggable modules, often integrating 16 or more channels on one device. Tower said its platforms provide the process uniformity, yield performance and device range these designs require, and allow functions such as wavelength division multiplexing and demultiplexing to sit on a single chip.

"Near-Package Optics is emerging as a key technology for next-generation AI and cloud infrastructure," said Oliver Sun, CTO of Innolight. "Our collaboration with Tower provides us with industry leading capabilities enabling us to accelerate the development of NPO solutions to meet the evolving needs of hyperscale and AI data center customers."

Dr. Marco Racanelli, President of Tower Semiconductor, said Innolight is a manufacturing customer across four Tower facilities: Newport Beach, California and San Antonio, Texas in the US, plus one each in Israel and Japan. "Given their market and product leadership, Innolight continues to be a critical technology partner for Tower's silicon photonics roadmap," he said.

Tower's Photonic Circuit Record With Marvell

According to akta.pro company records, Tower and Marvell Technology shipped over 5 million coherent photonic integrated circuits for AI data center interconnect networks, a milestone recorded in June 2026. The same records list a multi-year supply agreement with IQE plc for Indium Phosphide epiwafers covering 200Gb/s/lane pluggable transceivers and next-generation 400Gb/s/lane modulators, and a May 2026 development deal with Lightwave Logic to integrate its electro-optic polymer modulators into Tower's silicon photonics platform.

Tower's Earlier Silicon Photonics Agreements

On October 23, 2026, The Times of India reported that Tower and Semtech expanded their 20-year SiGe partnership, with Semtech investing in dedicated capacity across Tower fabs in the US, Israel and Japan for AI data-center optical interconnects up to 3.2T. On October 9, 2026, Yahoo reported that Tower and NewPhotonics announced high-volume shipments of laser-integrated optical PICs for AI data center interconnects, targeting 800G to 1.6T data rates now and 6.4T in 2027. On November 2, 2026, CTech reported that Tower CEO Micha Brickman said AI demand remains intact and that the company expects record annual revenue of $2 billion, with silicon photonics as its largest growth engine.

TPSCo Restructuring Set for April 2027

Tower's restructuring of TPSCo with Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan, under which Tower would acquire 100% ownership of the 300mm Fab 7 in Japan, is expected to close in April 2027, according to akta.pro company records.