News: Optoelectronics
17 February 2026
Tower and Scintil announce availability of first heterogeneously integrated DWDM lasers for AI infrastructure
Specialty analog foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd of Migdal Haemek, Israel and Scintil Photonics of Grenoble, France (a fabless firm developing and commercializing silicon photonic integrated circuits with integrated lasers for AI data centers) have announced availability of the world’s first heterogeneously integrated dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) laser sources for AI infrastructure using Scintil’s SHIP (Scintil Heterogeneous Integrated Photonics) technology.
SHIP leverages Tower’s high-volume silicon photonics platform and combines it with heterogeneous integration of monolithic laser sources, capable of meeting the most demanding DWDM technical requirements for AI. DWDM lasers are an essential component of co-packaged optics (CPO)-based next-generation AI infrastructure that aims to deliver ever-growing bandwidth density, ultra-low tail latency, and lower energy per bit, while improving GPU utilization and hyperscaler ROI needed in the agentic AI era.
“The scale-up networking opportunity is about to increase significantly as these server interconnects move to multi-rack CPO. Scale-up networking will consume an increasing portion of AI networking’s $200bn 2030 market as the market moves towards optical architectures, reducing the constraints on beachhead and copper bandwidth limitations per GPU/XPU,” says Alan Weckel, founder & technology analyst at 650 Group LLC. “Manufacturing and foundry to vendor alignment is the key to unlocking the CPO market to ensure the reliability and volumes that hyperscalers need to hit their AI goals,” he adds.
Scintil’s SHIP technology has been validated on Tower’s silicon photonics platform. LEAF Light is the industry’s first DWDM-optimized, intelligent external laser source fabricated with SHIP. Tower’s multi-site silicon photonics manufacturing footprint is said to provide resilient capacity and supply continuity aligned with hyperscale deployment needs. This positions the partnership for high-volume hyperscale deployment with the capacity flexibility and supply continuity required at scale.
The collaboration supports customer evaluations for DWDM CPO programs, establishing a defined path from qualification to volume manufacturing.
“Next-generation AI infrastructure demands optical interconnects that deliver more bandwidth per fiber at lower power per bit,” says Scintil’s CEO Matt Crowley. “DWDM co-packaged optics meets that bar. LEAF Light brings the DWDM laser source technology; Tower’s SiPho platform brings the manufacturing scale. With SHIP now validated on Tower’s production lines, customers have a path from evaluation to millions of units per month,” he adds.
“We deeply value our long-term partnership with Scintil, and are excited to bring this revolutionary monolithic DWDM laser technology to market to enable next generations of scale-up architectures,” says Dr Ed Preisler, VP & general manager of Tower’s RF business unit. “Scintil’s platform complements our PH18M platform already in mass production for optical transceivers at our facilities worldwide.”
As AI data-center growth accelerates, hyperscalers need networking solutions that reduce power, improve utilization, and scale with the next generation of models. DWDM CPO, with higher bandwidth density, lower energy per bit, and ultra-low tail latency, are where the industry is heading. It is claimed that LEAF Light is the first production-ready DWDM laser source that uses heterogeneous integration to monolithically integrate active lasers and established silicon photonics on a single chip.
At the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC 2026) in Los Angeles, CA, USA (17–19 March), Scintil is exhibiting in booth #5537. Tower is exhibiting its silicon photonics (SiPho) platform and RF & HPA technology offerings in booth #2221. Representatives from both companies will be available for meetings during the event.
Tower extends 300mm wafer bonding technology across SiPho and SiGe BiCMOS
Scintil raises $58m to scale integrated photonics for AI factories
Scintil demonstrating LEAF Light DWDM remote light source at OFC
