HyperLight, UMC, and Wavetek Announce Strategic Partnership for High-Volume Foundry Production of TFLN Chiplet™ Platform
HyperLight Corporation ("HyperLight"), United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE:UMC, TWSE: 2303))("UMC"), and Wavetek Microelectronics Corporation ("Wavetek"), a wholly owned subsidiary of UMC, today 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. The collaboration marks a major inflection point in the commercialization of TFLN photonics, enabling the manufacturing capacity required for AI and cloud infrastructure deployment at scale.
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An 8-inch TFLN wafer produced through HyperLight's TFLN Chiplet™ platform
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.
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.
"TFLN has long been recognized as one of the most important technologies for the future of optical interconnects, but the industry has been waiting for a path to true manufacturing scale," said Mian Zhang, CEO of HyperLight. "The HyperLight TFLN Chiplet Platform was architected from the beginning to unify the requirements of IMDD, coherent, and co-packaged optics into a single manufacturable foundation. The era of TFLN as a niche technology is over. 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."
"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. We are proud to continue enabling both high-volume manufacturing and ongoing innovation for TFLN photonics."
The TFLN Chiplet Platform enables fundamental performance gains including extreme high modulation bandwidth, CMOS-level drive voltage and ultralow optical loss. For AI networks across all interconnect distances, TFLN reduces laser consumption and supports CMOS direct-drive voltage, lowering power consumption as lane speeds continue to scale. For emerging applications like quantum computing and sensing, the TFLN Chiplet platform enables the extreme performance required at scale.
HyperLight's platform approach consolidates diverse customer requirements into a standardized, production-ready architecture, reducing ecosystem complexity, lowering manufacturing risk, and enabling rapid, cost-competitive adoption of TFLN photonics at global scale.
About HyperLight
HyperLight delivers high-performance integrated photonics solutions based on thin-film lithium niobate technology. The company combines the electro-optic advantages of TFLN with scalable manufacturing, test, and integration to enable next-generation optical engines for AI data centers, telecom and metro networks, and emerging photonics markets.
Website: https://www.hyperlightcorp.com
About UMC
UMC (NYSE:UMC, TWSE: 2303)) is a leading global semiconductor foundry company. The company provides high-quality IC fabrication services, focusing on logic and various specialty technologies to serve all major sectors of the electronics industry. UMC's comprehensive IC processing technologies and manufacturing solutions include Logic/Mixed-Signal, embedded High-Voltage, embedded Non-Volatile-Memory, RFSOI, BCD etc. Most of UMC's 12-in and 8-in fabs with its core R&D are located in Taiwan, with additional ones throughout Asia. UMC has a total of 12 fabs in production with combined capacity of more than 400,000 wafers per month (12-in equivalent), and all of them are certified with IATF 16949 automotive quality standard. UMC is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, plus local offices in United States, Europe, China, Japan, Korea & Singapore, with a worldwide total of 20,000 employees. For more information, please visit: https://www.umc.com.
Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward-looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about introduction of new services and technologies, future outsourcing, competition, wafer capacity, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in UMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.
About Wavetek
Wavetek is a wholly owned subsidiary of UMC, providing high-quality compound semiconductors and advanced photonics production. With a focus on gallium nitride (GaN), gallium arsenide (GaAs), thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN), and other specialized compound technologies, Wavetek serves diverse applications including RF, optical interconnects, power electronics, and AI data centers.
Located in Hsinchu, Taiwan, Wavetek is certified with IATF 16949 automotive quality standard, supporting customers worldwide. For more information, please visit: https://www.wtkmicro.com
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HyperLight
Joe Balaban
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UMC
Michelle Yun
886-3-578-2258 x16951
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