Oct 15, 2001

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), a world leading semiconductor foundry and LightCross, a leading integrated optical networking components company have announced that they have successfully produced working Arrayed Waveguide Gratings ( AWG ) devices on UMC silicon. "By combining LightCross's cutting edge photonics design expertise with UMC's ability to achieve high-yield and volume chip manufacturing at low costs will revolutionize the optical components industry", said John Hsuan, vice chairman of UMC. "Our partnership with LightCross represents an bold effort to leverage existing IC infrastructure and assets to make cutting edge telecommunication products"

This event marks the first time that integrated optical devices have been produced at a pureplay semiconductor foundry. Through the bridging fabrication technology developed at LightCross, the traditionally labor-intensive process of handcrafting discrete photonic components is no longer required. Now, for the first time, photonic components can be manufacturing in silicon, in an integrated manner, by leveraging UMC's fabs. Beyond significantly reducing development cycles, this process also provides the lowest-cost approach for fabricating photonic integrated circuits.

"I am very proud that we have been able to achieve this critical business and technical milestone," said Robert L. Barron, newly appointed C.E.O. and president of LightCross. "From a technology perspective, we are the first in our industry to demonstrate the ability to produce photonic components in an "true" IC production environment."

It is believed that these low-cost and high-performance devices will significantly contribute toward helping optical communication systems move quickly from the network backbone to the metro and local access networks, according to the statement.