Packaging and test account for up to 80% of silicon photonics cost. At OFC 2026, FormFactor showed a fully automated measurement platform using its Pharos lens and 3D beam algorithms to sharply improve wafer-level test repeatability and efficiency for AI data center interconnects.

Intel's ECTC 2026 paper swaps the flexible fiber array in a detachable CPO connector for a rigid glass coupler. The point is not lower loss but turning fiber alignment from on-site craft into a process-locked, manufacturable, traceable step.