News: Suppliers
15 June 2026
IQE and Tower announce multi-year InP epiwafer supply agreement
Epiwafer and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK and specialty analog foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd of Migdal Haemek, Israel have announced a multi-year agreement for the supply of indium phosphide (InP) epiwafers for optical connectivity solutions serving AI-driven data-center infrastructure.
IQE’s InP epiwafers will be used in several of Tower’s silicon photonics platforms for next-generation optical technologies, providing a supply base for Tower’s product roadmap. IQE and Tower’s collaboration includes technology for the production of 200Gbs/lane for pluggable transceivers and the prototyping of next-generation 400Gb/lane modulators, as well as other critical applications including optical circuit switches for deployment in data centers.
The agreement provides for a minimum purchase commitment by Tower in the first year, a reciprocal supply commitment from IQE, and minimum volume commitments thereafter.
Under a separate agreement, Tower will also provide a broad worldwide and royalty-free license to IQE for porous silicon patents which have been the subject of an IP dispute between the companies, settling all litigation in the matter.
“This agreement reinforces IQE’s position within tier-1 global hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure markets,” says IQE’s CEO Jutta Meier. “With decades of InP epitaxy expertise and established high-volume manufacturing capability, IQE is primed to support next-generation optical connectivity applications as they scale from innovation to commercial deployment,” she adds.
“We are pleased to partner with IQE as a key supplier for our next-generation photonic technologies that add InP high-performance components to our high-volume, mature, silicon photonics platform,” says Tower’s president Dr Marco Racanelli. “The combination will enable products that can deliver both the performance and high volumes required to scale future AI infrastructure capacity.”
Tower signs customer contracts for $1.3bn silicon photonics revenue for 2027
IQE extends multi-year strategic supply agreement with Lumentum
