Ams Osram to unveil thin-film VCSEL for AI scale-up
At ECOC 2026 in Malaga, Spain (September 20–24, 2026) Ams Osram will unveil its latest breakthrough in Thin-Film VCSEL technology and demonstrate a connectorised multi-core fibre solution in collaboration with the interconnectivity company BizLink.
The VCSEL platform, designed for highly parallel low-power optical interconnects for AI scale-up, combines several differentiating technologies in a single architecture. These include top-emission Thin-Film VCSELs, dense 25 µm pitch microVCSEL arrays with addressability, silicon TSV integration and compatibility with standard multimode fibre infrastructure. This enables highly parallel optical links with exceptional packaging density and ultra-low-power operation, according to the company.
The company has successfully completed microVCSEL integration on silicon TSV substrates and demonstrated error-free 32 Gb/s NRZ operation. The platform achieves an energy efficiency of approximately 0.25 pJ/bit while maintaining compatibility with scalable manufacturing approaches. This level of efficiency highlights the potential of highly parallel optical architectures to support future bandwidth scaling while minimising power consumption.
In addition, reliability testing has shown no failures after more than 2,000 hours under elevated junction temperatures and current overstress conditions.
At ECOC 2026, Ams Osram will present an optical interconnect demonstrator that combines Ams Osram's 2D addressable 850 nm microVCSEL array technology with BizLink's fibre-array integration and optical connectivity expertise, creating a connectorised multi-core fibre solution optimised for wide-and-slow data communication.
The system will be demonstrated in a private setting for selected customers and industry partners during the event.
“AI infrastructure requires a fundamentally different approach to moving data and wide-and-slow optical architectures deliver a step-change in power efficiency, latency and scalability. As an integrated electro-optical engine provider, it’s our role to build out the ecosystem required to support a scalable industry solution, and we’re excited about our partnership with BizLink to enable fibre connectivity solutions.” said Ashkan Seyedi, VP and general manager of Optical Interconnects at Ams Osram.
“This demonstrator validates a fundamentally different optical interconnect architecture optimised for ultra-low power and low latency operation, by combining Ams Osram's addressable microVCSEL technology with BizLink's expertise in fibre-array integration, optical packaging and manufacturing, we have demonstrated the potential of highly parallel optical interconnects for future AI infrastructure.” said Hendrik Coldenstrodt, CTO of the Computing and Transportation Business Group at BizLink Group.
