Tower Semiconductor and photonics solutions provider Salience Labs Limited will manufacture photonic integrated circuit (PIC)-based optical circuit switches (OCS) for AI infrastructure.

The collaboration, which is not into pre-production phase, will drive product readiness and at-scale deployment for AI data-center deployment. Specifically, it will leverage Tower’s high-volume silicon photonics platforms, such as the PH18DA with integrated III-V lasers, and the TPS45PH, with low loss nitride waveguides.

Emerging Alternative in AI Era

Recently, there have been unprecedented growth in data center scale and network complexity because of AI workloads. Therefore, increasing the need for higher bandwidth, lower network latency, and lower energy per bit across optical interconnects.

However, the current conversion-based electronic packet switching (EPS) architecture may not be ideal in the growing network complexity. For that reason, the OCS architecture is seen to provide an ideal alternative because it moves more connectivity and switching into the optical domain and minimizing electrical bottlenecks.

Dr. Ed Preisler, Vice President and General Manager of RF Business Unit, Tower Semiconductor, said Salience Labs brings a compelling OCS approach for AI infrastructure. Moreover, with the two companies’ leveraging each other’s strengths, will enable customers to industrialize silicon photonics-based switching architectures.

“Silicon photonics with integrated light sources is a key enabler for scaling next-generation optical connectivity, and our collaboration with Salience Labs reinforces our strong momentum in AI and data-center infrastructure,” said Preisler.

Meanwhile, Vaysh Kewada, Founder, CEO and Director, Salience Labs, said, “Our collaboration builds on our deep expertise in silicon photonics and specialty platforms, strengthening our ability to deliver optical switch technology optimized for the performance and power demands of AI data centers.”

26 February 2026