Semtech Corporation, the developer of advanced semiconductors that drive AI data center networking, and Tower Semiconductor, which specializes in designing custom analog semiconductor solutions. It extends the 20-year old manufacturing relationship between the two, where Semtech will make direct investments to obtain dedicated SiGe foundry capacity within Tower.
Power efficiency has become the key bottleneck due to the increase in scale of AI compute clusters across racks, server rows, and hyperscalers. Power consumption in transferring data among processing nodes has increased significantly, and since the transition of network throughput from 800G to 1.6T, with the goal of reaching 3.2T architectures, there has been an increasing demand for high-speed analog front-end components.
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Powering High-Speed Optical and Copper Interconnect Architectures
Semtech’s signal integrity lineup-comprising transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs), laser and modulator drivers, and linear equalizers-is fabricated on Tower’s advanced SiGe process node. The platform serves multiple optical and copper interconnect standards, including:
Fully Retimed Optics (FRO)
Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO) and Linear Receive Optics (LRO)
Near-Packaged Optics (NPO) and eXtra-dense Pluggable Optics (XPO)
Active Copper Cables (ACC) and PCB-level linear equalization
Highlighting the partnership’s technical milestones, Semtech received the Optical Component Innovation (Chip/Wafer) award at the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) 2026 for its 224 Gbps per Lane TIA Family for Linear Pluggable Optics, developed on Tower’s SiGe process.
Geographically Diversified Manufacturing and Global Capacity
The dedicated manufacturing agreement spans Tower’s semiconductor fabrication facilities in the United States, Israel, and Japan, establishing multi-region supply chain resilience for Semtech’s global customer base.
“Connectivity is now a primary factor in how far AI systems can scale,” said Hong Hou, Semtech President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our customers are scaling interconnect bandwidth quickly and at massive scale. Meeting that demand requires long-term capacity planning and commitment with our manufacturing partners. Tower has been a trusted partner to Semtech for 20 years, and we are very pleased with our partnership agreement that secures dedicated SiGe capacity across three regions to grow across copper and optical interconnects, from 800G and 1.6T today through 3.2T and beyond.”
“It is a source of profound satisfaction that our partnership with Semtech has grown so strong,” said Russell Ellwanger, Chief Executive Officer, Tower Semiconductor. “Together, we are driving truly accretive, platform-level solutions that help advance their designs delivering best-in-class figures of merit across present-generation, next-generation and N+2 technologies. By qualifying these solutions well ahead of market need, we both stand fully prepared for immediate implementation as the market moves into these generations. In doing so, we are the key drivers of the technologies carrying the market forward, ensuring a continual expansion of our already leading market share in optical transceiver connectivity within this high-growth market.”
