Glass substrates are making a comeback. Corning's latest OFC 2026 paper shows a glass interposer with embedded IOX waveguides and electrical interconnects that assembles a silicon photonics PIC in under 5 minutes and targets 8 Tb/s bandwidth density for AI-era interconnects.

Detachable CPO optical connectors have never managed low loss, passive alignment, high-power handling and detachability all at once. At ECTC 2026, GlobalFoundries and Corning did it for the first time: <1.5 dB/facet, 280 mW, fully passive alignment — a one-two punch of foundry silicon photonics and glass connectors.