CEA-Leti and NcodiN partner on 300mm photonics
CEA-Leti and NcodiN, a French startup pioneering nanolaser-enabled photonic interconnects, are working together to industrialise NcodiN’s optical interposer technology on a 300 mm integrated photonics process.
The collaboration aims to accelerate the company’s proof-of-concept transfer into industrial-grade 300 mm processes — moving beyond copper interconnects and towards scalable, in-package, long-reach optical links for future computing architectures and AI) chips.
NcodiN, which received €16 million in seed financing last November, is building NConnect, an integrated optical interconnect platform powered by what is claimed to be the world’s smallest laser on silicon — 500× smaller than today’s industry-standard devices. The company’s nanolaser-enabled photonic interposers are designed for ultra-dense integration (>5,000 nanolasers/mm²) and low energy operation (~0.1 pJ/bit).
Building on CEA-Leti’s photonics integration expertise, NcodiN is moving its nanolaser to a 300 mm silicon photonics platform.
“NcodiN’s nanolaser-enabled photonic interconnects overcome the long-standing bottleneck of bulky, inefficient photonic components that have prevented large-scale adoption,” said Francesco Manegatti, co-founder and CEO of NcodiN. “Our collaboration with CEA-Leti aims to demonstrate NConnect’s compatibility with 300 mm wafers, which is essential for commercial-scale production and cost-effective adoption in AI-centric processors and high-bandwidth computing systems.”
Sébastien Dauvé, CEO of CEA-Leti, said the partnership underscores the two parties’ shared commitment to enabling scalable photonic infrastructure capable of meeting tomorrow’s computing demands. “Transitioning photonics to a 300 mm CMOS-compatible process is a turning point for optical interconnects that can finally be produced at the scale, cost, and reliability the AI industry requires,” he said.
