US chipmaker and foundry Intel is positioning its foundry as a supplier of integrated light sources for AI data center interconnects. At the Open Compute Project Global Summit, the company claimed it will be the only high-volume manufacturer capable of supplying indium phosphide-based silicon photonics on 300-millimeter wafers. The technology targets near-package and co-packaged optics, which bring optical connections closer to processors and switches. Credit: Intel Intel’s approach to combining InP and silicon is to bond InP material onto a patterned silicon photonics wafer and then fabricate the integrated laser structures on the InP. A major advantage of this method is lithographic alignment of the laser with the silicon waveguides, as opposed to the precise mechanical alignment required when attaching an external light source, which Intel says it also supports. Intel commercialized its integrated-photonics business in 2016, but sales have been relatively modest, with about 8 million optical transceivers and 32 million integrated lasers shipped. As AI giants like Nvidia and Broadcom have launched a major push for co-packaged optics, however, there’s a huge opportunity for growth. Intel hasn’t announced a mass-production schedule for the technology.