HyperLight and UMC Collaborate with Jabil to Bring TFLN Photonics to Data-Center Scale Deployment

Key Terms

thin-film lithium niobate medical

A thin, wafer-like layer of lithium niobate—a crystalline material that efficiently converts and controls light and electrical signals—used to build compact, high-speed optical and electronic components. It matters to investors because it enables faster, lower-power data transmission and sensing in telecom, data centers and advanced electronics, acting like a super-efficient highway for light that can reduce costs and create new product opportunities in growing markets.

tfln photonics technical

Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonics is an advanced way of building tiny light-based circuits on a chip using a material known for changing its optical properties when electricity is applied. Think of it as upgrading copper wiring to a faster, more responsive fiber-optic circuit on a microchip; it enables faster, lower-loss signal processing for communications, sensors, and data centers. Investors care because TFLN can make optical devices smaller, more efficient and cheaper to scale, which can drive adoption and revenue growth in telecom and cloud infrastructure markets.

optical interconnects technical

Optical interconnects are systems that use light instead of electrical signals to move data between parts of computers, data centers, or telecom equipment, like replacing copper wires with tiny light pipes. They matter to investors because they can greatly increase speed and capacity while lowering power use and heat, making digital networks faster and cheaper to scale; think of swapping a crowded city road for a high-speed rail line that carries much more traffic efficiently.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & HSINCHU, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- HyperLight Corporation (“HyperLight”), United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303)(“UMC”), and Wavetek Microelectronics Corporation (“Wavetek”), a wholly owned subsidiary of UMC, today announced a collaboration with Jabil Inc. (“Jabil”), to accelerate the deployment of thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonics into hyperscale AI data center interconnects. The collaboration brings together HyperLight’s TFLN photonic technology, UMC and Wavetek’s qualified foundry manufacturing, and Jabil’s expertise in high-volume manufacturing and assembly to support deployment of next-generation optical modules at data-center scale.

As AI clusters grow, optical interconnects must deliver higher bandwidth without becoming a power bottleneck. HyperLight and Jabil have worked closely to integrate TFLN-based photonic devices into next-generation optical transceiver platforms. Backed by scalable 6-inch and 8-inch wafer manufacturing capabilities of UMC and Wavetek, and leveraging Jabil’s expertise in supply chain management and system integration, this collaboration paves the way for mass market adoption of HyperLight’s TFLN Chiplet™ Platform for energy efficient optical modules suitable for hyperscale data center environments.

“TFLN provides a significant advantage to AI data center networking through reduced power consumption and lower laser requirements,” said Mian Zhang, CEO of HyperLight. “TFLN’s fundamental material benefits only grow as optical interconnect speeds scale. With Jabil driving system integration and manufacturing execution, and with UMC and Wavetek supporting scalable device production, we are moving TFLN from innovation into practical, high-volume deployment for hyperscale data centers today.”

“Hyperscale and AI customers must deploy at scale. They are looking for optical technologies that can be manufactured, integrated, and deployed reliably at data-center volumes,” said Jason Wildt, General Manager and Vice President of Photonics at Jabil. “Our collaboration with HyperLight, UMC, and Wavetek brings together advanced photonics, proven manufacturing at scale, and system integration capabilities, enabling TFLN-based solutions to be deployed at the rack level for AI and hyperscale customers.”

“UMC has supported the transition of TFLN from early development into qualified foundry manufacturing through our work with HyperLight,” said G C Hung, Senior Vice President at UMC. “By extending this collaboration to include system-level integration with Jabil, we are helping establish a complete manufacturing and deployment path that supports the scale, reliability, and capacity requirements of AI data center infrastructure.”

For current-generation optical modules, HyperLight’s TFLN technology can deliver meaningful power savings compared to incumbent approaches, with advantages that strengthen as lane speeds increase. In target architectures, TFLN enables designs that reduce optical complexity, including lower laser count, helping address both power and supply constraints. At hyperscale, these per-module improvements compound into data-center-level power headroom that can be redeployed toward higher GPU density, larger clusters, or incremental AI workloads.

About HyperLight

HyperLight delivers high-performance integrated photonics solutions based on thin-film lithium niobate technology. The company combines the electro-optic advantages of TFLN with scalable manufacturing, test, and integration to enable next-generation optical engines for AI data centers, telecom and metro networks, and emerging photonics markets.

Website: https://www.hyperlightcorp.com

About UMC

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry company. The company provides high-quality IC fabrication services, focusing on logic and various specialty technologies to serve all major sectors of the electronics industry. UMC’s comprehensive IC processing technologies and manufacturing solutions include Logic/Mixed-Signal, embedded High-Voltage, embedded Non-Volatile-Memory, RFSOI, BCD etc. Most of UMC's 12-in and 8-in fabs with its core R&D are located in Taiwan, with additional ones throughout Asia. UMC has a total of 12 fabs in production with combined capacity of more than 400,000 wafers per month (12-in equivalent), and all of them are certified with IATF 16949 automotive quality standard. UMC is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, plus local offices in United States, Europe, China, Japan, Korea & Singapore, with a worldwide total of 20,000 employees. For more information, please visit: https://www.umc.com.

Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward-looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about introduction of new services and technologies, future outsourcing, competition, wafer capacity, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in UMC’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260313758941/en/

Media contact

HyperLight

Joe Balaban

joe@hyperlightcorp.com

UMC

Michelle Yun

886-3-578-2258 x16951

michelle_yun@umc.com

Source: HyperLight Corporation