Korea Advanced Materials (formerly PPI) announced on the 5th that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with POSTECH to jointly develop FA application technology based on special planar lightwave circuits (PLC).
Through this agreement, the two companies will collaborate on ▲ securing connection compatibility of silicon photonics devices ▲ joint design and mass production of special FA optical fibers ▲ joint marketing and building customer networks for global market entry.
Korea Advanced Materials was the first in the world to successfully mass-produce planar lightwave circuit (PLC) splitters and supplies related products to data centers, 5G communication networks, and base stations.
POSTECH leads the fine pitch interconnection technology for silicon photonics (optical semiconductors) used in data centers, and based on this, is developing new optical communication application solutions usable across various industries.
In particular, silicon photonics is a technology recently eyed by big tech companies such as NVIDIA, TSMC, and Intel as the next-generation growth engine. It transmits data movement occurring at the chip level through "light," making data processing dramatically faster than current technologies that send and receive information via electron movement. Therefore, silicon photonics is regarded as overcoming the limitations of existing electrical signal transmission methods.
The world's largest foundry company, TSMC, is collaborating with major clients such as NVIDIA to jointly develop silicon photonics and packaging technologies, and it is known that mass production is expected to begin as early as next year.
An industry insider explained, "As global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers surges, silicon photonics technology, which maximizes data transmission efficiency, is gaining attention," adding, "This technology possesses various advantages such as miniaturization, lightweight, low power consumption, and high thermal efficiency."
Korea Advanced Materials aims to combine its optical semiconductor technology with POSTECH's Fine Pitch Interconnection technology to develop advanced semiconductor products and provide related solutions to global companies such as NVIDIA and Intel.
Through this agreement, Korea Advanced Materials plans to accelerate its entry into the U.S. market. It intends to expand its influence in the silicon photonics market by signing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with big tech companies in the future.
A representative from Korea Advanced Materials stated, "This cooperation is an opportunity to prove Korea's technological capabilities and competitiveness in the U.S. market," and added, "We will showcase more advanced technologies together with POSTECH."
He continued, "Silicon photonics technology will become a core technology for high-performance data centers and AI systems in the future," emphasizing, "This is expected to greatly contribute to strengthening the global competitiveness of Korean companies."
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