en.Wedoany.com Reported - Dongxing Securities recently released a report titled "Optical Interconnect CPO Industry: Accelerating Industrialization, TSMC COUPE Leads Silicon Photonics Integration Implementation." The report points out that the demand for interconnect speed and density in AI computing clusters is surpassing the physical limits of traditional pluggable optical modules, and Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) is regarded by the industry as the ultimate solution for high-density interconnects. In June 2026, NVIDIA's Spectrum-X Ethernet silicon photonics technology achieved full mass production, marking a critical turning point for the silicon photonics industry chain transitioning from custom R&D to standardized foundry mass production.
According to LightCounting data from April 2026, shipment forecasts for 1.6T CPO products have been significantly revised upward. During the 2023-2026 period, 1.6T CPO products were in the technology introduction phase, with shipments nearly zero; starting from 2027, they enter a large-scale ramp-up phase, with the market size expected to exceed $5 billion; the 2029 forecast has been revised upward from approximately 2 million units to about 9 million units. By 2030, the overall market size could reach $15 billion, with shipments further revised upward to approximately 13 million units in 2031.
TSMC's COUPE platform utilizes SoIC copper-copper hybrid bonding 3D stacking technology, stacking 7nm and above electronic integrated circuits (EIC) on 65nm SOI silicon photonic integrated circuit (PIC) wafers, compressing signal paths from millimeter scale to micrometer scale. Measured performance indicators include: passive device operating wavelength covering 1290-1330 nm, pure silicon grating coupler peak loss of 1.3 dB, silicon nitride waveguide single-mode loss of 0.21 dB/cm, silicon nitride edge coupler insertion loss of 1.2 dB; micro-ring modulator modulation efficiency of 0.35 Vπ-cm, with 63/76 GHz dual bandwidth options; germanium photodetector responsivity of 1.0 A/W, dark current less than 20 nA, -3dB bandwidth up to 110 GHz; dual micro-ring resonator channel spacing of 1.11 nm, crosstalk better than 20 dB. The three-phase technology iteration roadmap is: Phase 1 in 2025 for OSFP pluggable 1.6T optical engines using flip-chip 2D packaging; Phase 2 in 2026 for 6.4T CPO optical engines based on CoWoS interposer technology (NVIDIA Spectrum-X achieves mass production at this stage); long-term Phase 3 for direct XPU chip connection to 12.8T optical engines.
In June 2026, based on TSMC's COUPE platform, NVIDIA's Spectrum-X CPO switches achieved mass production. NVIDIA Quantum-X is equipped with 4 switching ASICs and 18 1.6T silicon photonic engines per unit, with a total chassis bandwidth of 115.2T; Spectrum-X integrates 32 3.2T optical engines, with a total chassis bandwidth of 102.4T and single-port power consumption of 9 watts, a 50% reduction compared to traditional architectures. Broadcom's Tomahawk 6 Davisson switch has a bandwidth of 102.4T, suitable for large cloud data centers. The industry chain division of labor is clear: TSMC is responsible for silicon photonic wafer manufacturing, ASE handles optoelectronic packaging, TFC Communication provides laser components, and Foxconn completes the final system assembly.
The silicon photonics industry chain is divided from top to bottom into four layers: the material layer, the core device layer, the foundry and packaging/testing layer, and the system terminal layer. The material layer involves thermal interface materials, underfill, ABF build-up film, glass core substrates, etc.; the core device layer includes thermal dissipation components, passive optical devices, laser sources, and fiber arrays; the foundry and packaging/testing layer covers silicon photonic wafer manufacturing, optical packaging platforms, optoelectronic chip testing, and coupling processes; the system terminal layer includes CPO optical engines and switch complete machine modules. In terms of industry landscape, in addition to TSMC and NVIDIA, Broadcom, Intel, Marvell, Ayar Labs, and Samsung are simultaneously developing their own silicon photonic solutions, with foundry platforms like GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics following suit. The global silicon photonics industry is transitioning towards standardized foundry mass production.
The report lists four major potential risks: fragmentation of CPO technology routes delaying large-scale deployment; fluctuations in capital expenditures of leading cloud vendors affecting CPO order fulfillment; overcapacity in traditional 800G/1.6T optical modules suppressing industry profitability; and supply chain and geopolitical constraints on the import and export of silicon photonic equipment and materials.
