"Optics is the next memory." A deep dive into the optical communications supply chains of NVIDIA, Google, AWS and other giants — from DSPs and optical transceivers to silicon photonics (SiPh). STT's exclusive interactive chart shows the core 800G/1.6T suppliers at a glance.

An exclusive 2026 map of the optical communications and CPO/silicon photonics supply chain — from EIC design and optoelectronic component manufacturing to optical modules and advanced packaging and test — covering NVIDIA, TSMC and other key suppliers alongside promising startups in the AI infrastructure investment matrix.

Taken apart, FOCI's six core CPO/FAU patents cover six different things; together they tell one story: engineering the fiber-to-chip connection for silicon photonics. Five shared design principles and patent-by-patent status show how this FAU leader is positioned in the COUPE supply chain.

Mapped along the "life of light", TSMC's 52 silicon photonics patents fall into six layers that stack up into COUPE. Our take: TSMC isn't selling patents, it's selling a manufacturable optical path, and that will redraw the division of labor across the CPO supply chain.

Is co-packaged optics ready to displace pluggable transceivers? We break down where CPO really stands, how Broadcom and NVIDIA are approaching it, and which players in Taiwan's supply chain are positioned to win.

A primer on the semiconductor lasers used in optical communications, from direct vs. indirect bandgaps and III-V materials to VCSEL, FP, DFB and DBR lasers, longitudinal and transverse modes, and direct vs. external (EML/MZM) modulation.

As AI clusters scale, the switching architecture — not the GPU — becomes the bottleneck. This piece explains how OCS bypasses O/E/O conversion, compares its four technology paths, maps its role across scale-up, scale-out and scale-across networks, and why it complements rather than replaces CPO.

400G optical transceivers come in many variants. This guide walks through the common specs — SR8, DR4, FR8/LR8 and FR4/LR4 — covering reach, fiber type, wavelength, lasers, connectors and PAM4 lane rates.

From form factors (QSFP-DD, OSFP, OSFP-XD) to reach classes, DSP vs. LPO vs. SiPh architectures, power budgets and the supply chain — a one-stop reference for 800G optical modules as AI clusters drive the shift beyond 400G.

The first bottleneck in silicon photonics isn’t silicon’s inability to emit light — it’s whether designers can get a box of foundry-guaranteed building blocks that will actually yield. That box is the PDK. Why is it so much harder than an electronic PDK, and why is it the foundry’s quietest moat?

AI demand, supercharged by the man in the leather jacket's June 2023 visit to Taiwan, has made co-packaged optics (CPO) one of the hottest topics in optical communications. This post introduces what CPO is, why it's needed, and where the technology stands today.

A roundup of the 800G optical market and its specifications, covering 8x100G short-reach and 4x200G long-reach scenarios, modulation, packaging and FEC choices, IEEE progress from 200G to 1.6T, QSFP-DD800 updates and optical connector interfaces.

A walk through a silicon photonics optical module from Tx to Rx: every core component, the key interfaces between them, and how Intel, NVIDIA, Broadcom, TSMC and DustPhotonics make different design choices on the road from pluggables to LPO and CPO.