ChainThink reports that on September 7, according to South Korean semiconductor media The Elec, Samsung Electronics is using probe stations from U.S.-based FormFactor and Taiwan-based MPI to test silicon photonic integrated circuit (PIC) wafers, with plans to complete its independent PIC evaluation this year.
Reports indicate that both companies have passed validation using TSMC’s CPO and silicon photonics testing equipment. Samsung is now using the same testing infrastructure as TSMC to perform optical-electrical characteristic tests on PIC wafers, including wavelength-domain and frequency-domain measurements, to verify whether the optical devices achieve optical signal transmission and electro-optical conversion.
Samsung previously engaged external organizations such as imec in Belgium to validate PIC wafers and is now building its own testing environment to conduct repeat evaluations.
The company has indicated that mass production of related projects will begin in the second half of this year, with plans to launch silicon photonics foundry services in 2027, followed by expanding CPO applications from network switches to products such as GPUs and CPUs.