Salience Labs and Tower Semiconductor partner to manufacture at-scale optical circuit switches for next-generation data centers 

Tower Semiconductor, the leading foundry of high-value analog semiconductor solutions, and Salience Labs Limited, a leader in photonic solutions targeting connectivity for AI datacenter infrastructure, today announced a partnership to manufacture Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) based Optical Circuit Switches (OCS) for AI infrastructure. The collaboration leverages Tower’s high-volume silicon photonics platforms, namely, PH18DA with integrated III-V lasers and TPS45PH, with low loss nitride waveguides. The partnership moves from development into pre-production phase, driving product readiness and at-scale deployment for AI data-center deployment.

AI workloads are driving unprecedented growth in data-center scale and network complexity, increasing the need for higher bandwidth, lower network latency and lower energy per bit across optical interconnects. OCS architecture provides an ideal alternative to the current OEO conversion-based Electronic Packet Switching (EPS) architecture by moving more connectivity and switching into the optical domain and minimizing electrical bottlenecks. According to Dell’Oro Group, data center switch spending in AI back-end networks will exceed $100 billion by 2030 due to a rise in deployments across scale-up, scale-out and scale across domains.

“Tower is a key partner for Salience Labs, supporting our roadmap with its silicon photonics and switching technology platforms,” said Vaysh Kewada, Founder, CEO and Director, Salience Labs. “Our collaboration builds on our deep expertise in silicon photonics and specialty platforms, strengthening our ability to deliver optical switch technology optimized for the performance and power demands of AI data centers.”

“Silicon photonics with integrated light sources is a key enabler for scaling next-generation optical connectivity, and our collaboration with Salience Labs reinforces our strong momentum in AI and data-center infrastructure,” said Dr. Ed Preisler, Vice President and General Manager of RF Business Unit, Tower Semiconductor. “Salience Labs brings a compelling OCS approach for AI infrastructure, and we’re excited to support its scaling. Leveraging the ability to combine our silicon photonics and specialty process platforms, enables customers to industrialize silicon photonics-based switching architectures, while securing a path from development phase to volume manufacturing.”