HyperLight, UMC, Wavetek to bolster TFLN production

US-based HyperLight Corporation, Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) and Wavetek Microelectronics Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of UMC, have announced a strategic manufacturing partnership for high-volume foundry production of HyperLight’s TFLN (thin-film lithium niobate) Chiplet Platform on both 6-inch and 8-inch wafers. 

Designed from inception to enable AI-infrastructure-scale production, the TFLN Chiplet Platform unifies the requirements of short-reach IMDD-based data center pluggables, longer-reach coherent-based datacom and telecom modules, and co-packaged optics (CPO) within a single high-volume manufacturable architecture. HyperLight serves as the platform architect, while UMC and Wavetek provide the high-volume foundry manufacturing infrastructure required for global deployment, according to a media release.

Building on HyperLight’s long-standing collaboration with Wavetek, which brought TFLN photonics from laboratory innovation to a customer-qualified, high-volume manufacturing (HVM) line within a 6-inch CMOS foundry, UMC is bringing to the partnership its 8-inch production capability and expertise to support the scale required for AI infrastructure growth, the media release said.

“Together with UMC and Wavetek, we are bringing TFLN into high-volume foundry production—enabling the performance, reliability, and cost structure required for AI infrastructure deployment at global scale,” said Mian Zhang, CEO of HyperLight. 

“To achieve 1.6T bandwidth and beyond, TFLN is emerging as a promising material to deliver the bandwidth requirements for next-generation data center connectivity. UMC is pleased to be a key 8-inch manufacturing partner to bring HyperLight’s scalable platform to the mass market,” said G C Hung, Senior Vice President of UMC. “This partnership sets a new benchmark in the industry and positions the team to lead TFLN production for the rapid growth of AI, cloud, and networking infrastructure.”

“WaveTek has worked closely with HyperLight over the past several years to translate TFLN from a promising material innovation into a qualified, customer-ready high-volume manufacturing line within a CMOS foundry environment,” said Bruce Lai, Chairman of Wavetek. “This announcement marks the next major step—building on that proven foundation to support the volume production and market deployment required for next-generation optical systems.”