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UMC Partners With Imec to Bring Faster, Light-Based Chips to Power AI and Data Centers

Benzinga·12/08/2025 08:57:15
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United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE:UMC, TWSE: 2303)))("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced a licensing agreement with imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub in advanced semiconductor technologies, for the transfer of imec's iSiPP300 silicon photonics process, featuring co-packaged optics (CPO) compatibility, to accelerate UMC's silicon photonics roadmap. The licensed technology will enable UMC to bring a 12-inch silicon photonics platform to market targeting next-generation connectivity.

With copper interconnects facing limitations amid growing AI data workloads, silicon photonics – using light to transmit data - is developing rapidly to support the ultra-high bandwidth, low latency, and energy-efficient requirements for data centers, high performance computing, and networking infrastructure. Tapping into this high-growth market, UMC will integrate imec's proven 12-inch silicon photonics process technology with its own expertise in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer processing and leverage prior experience in 8-inch silicon photonics production to provide customers with a highly scalable photonic IC (PIC) platform.