STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) has launched high-volume production of its PIC100 silicon photonics platform, positioning itself as a primary supplier for the 800G and 1.6T transceivers required to power the global AI infrastructure "super-cycle.
The Geneva-based semiconductor giant announced Monday that it has transitioned its proprietary PIC100 technology to 300 mm production lines at its Crolles facility in France.
The move is designed to meet surging demand from hyperscalers—including primary collaborator Amazon Web Services (AWS)—for optical interconnects that facilitate rapid data transfer between AI clusters and data centers.
ST outlined an aggressive scaling roadmap, revealing plans to more than quadruple its silicon photonics production capacity by 2027, with additional expansion slated for 2028.
This growth is already bolstered by long-term capacity reservation commitments from major customers.
The PIC100 platform achieves a benchmark of 200 Gbps per lane, enabling the power-efficient 800G and 1.6T pluggable modules that are replacing traditional copper and legacy optical solutions.
Technical specifications for the PIC100 platform include best-in-class silicon waveguide losses of 0.4 dB/cm and silicon nitride losses of 0.5 dB/cm.
Looking ahead, ST previewed a Through-Silicon Via (TSV) roadmap intended to further increase optical density and thermal efficiency—critical factors as data centers struggle with the heat dissipation of high-speed AI workloads.
The company will present detailed technical papers and live demonstrations of the platform at the upcoming OFC 2026 conference in Los Angeles.