Tower Semiconductor and LightIC Technologies announced a strategic collaboration aimed at extending silicon photonics beyond AI data-center infrastructure into automotive, robotics, and Physical AI sensing applications. The partnership leverages Tower’s mature silicon photonics foundry platform to manufacture LightIC’s Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) LiDAR products, including the Lark long-range automotive LiDAR and the FR60 compact LiDAR for robotics.
The companies are targeting a LiDAR market that continues to expand beyond advanced driver-assistance systems. According to Yole Group, the automotive LiDAR segment is projected to grow from $859 million in 2024 to $3.6 billion by 2030, while the broader LiDAR market is expected to reach $6.3 billion by 2027 as adoption increases in industrial automation, smart infrastructure, and robotics. FMCW LiDAR, which enables coherent ranging and instantaneous velocity measurement, is viewed as a key enabler for these next-generation sensing use cases.
Tower’s silicon photonics platform, already deployed at scale in AI networking and optical interconnects, provides the manufacturing maturity required for automotive qualification and long-term production. LightIC applies this platform to integrate complex optical functions directly onto silicon, targeting improvements in size, weight, power, and cost. The collaboration is positioned to accelerate the transition of velocity-aware LiDAR from development programs into commercial automotive and Physical AI deployments.
- Partnership focuses on silicon photonics–based FMCW LiDAR for automotive, robotics, and Physical AI
- Tower provides a production-proven silicon photonics foundry platform derived from AI infrastructure deployments
- LightIC integrates coherent optical functions on silicon for 4D LiDAR with velocity sensing
- Market targets include automotive ADAS, robotics, industrial automation, and smart infrastructure
- Collaboration aims to improve SWaP-C while supporting qualification and volume manufacturing
“We are excited to expand our silicon photonics market beyond that of AI infrastructure into new sensing applications,” said Dr. Ed Preisler, Vice President and General Manager of the RF Business Unit at Tower Semiconductor.
🌐 Analysis
Tower Semiconductor has steadily expanded its silicon photonics capabilities alongside its broader high-value analog foundry portfolio, supplying platforms that span RF, mixed-signal, imaging, and photonics for customers that require long lifecycle support and multi-fab sourcing. Its participation in AI data-center optical interconnect manufacturing has helped drive process maturity that now becomes transferable to sensing markets with demanding reliability and qualification requirements, such as automotive.
For LightIC, the collaboration addresses a core scaling challenge facing FMCW LiDAR vendors: moving from prototype-level photonic integration to manufacturable, automotive-grade silicon. By anchoring its designs to a mature foundry platform, LightIC positions itself against a competitive field that includes both discrete-optics LiDAR suppliers and vertically integrated semiconductor players seeking tighter integration and lower system cost.
