New-Tech Europe | Q3 2026 | Digital Edition

Beyond Copper: Why Integrated Photonics Is Key to Scaling AI Infrastructure

by New-Tech Magazine Group

The collaboration between Tower Semiconductor and Scintil Photonics offers a clear view into the future of data center connectivity in the AI era, and the challenges that still need to be solved

photonics platform, reflects a broader industry shift. Data center connectivity is gradually moving from copper-based interconnects to optical links embedded much closer to the chip. The New Bottleneck in AI Systems In large-scale training and inference clusters, a significant portion of time and energy is spent moving data between GPUs, across servers and between racks. As system scale increases, data traffic grows even faster. As a result, electrical interconnects, even the most advanced ones, are struggling to meet the bandwidth and power requirements of AI-driven data centers. Moving to optics is a natural step. Optical fibers offer higher data rates, longer reach and lower energy per bit. But bringing these advantages into the data center itself requires more than replacing cables. It requires a shift in architecture. Co-Packaged Optics: Bringing Connectivity Closer to Compute Co-Packaged Optics, CPO, represents that shift. Instead of using discrete optical modules, photonic components are integrated directly alongside the processor or accelerator, sometimes within the same package. This shortens electrical paths, reduces power loss and enables significantly higher bandwidth density. For data centers, this

The AI revolution is often framed in terms of compute, GPUs, accelerators and new architectures. But as AI systems scale to thousands and even tens of thousands of accelerators, a different bottleneck is becoming more visible. The challenge is no longer just computation. It is communication. In simple terms, compute is advancing faster than the ability to move data. This is where integrated photonics comes into play. The collaboration announced by Tower Semiconductor and Scintil Photonics, centered on DWDM laser integration within a silicon

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