Samsung will adopt the same photonic semiconductor test platform as TSMC, and complete the in-house R&D evaluation of photonic integrated circuits (PIC) within the year.

According to South Korean semiconductor media outlet The Elec, Samsung Electronics is using probe stations from U.S.-based FormFactor and Taiwan’s MPI to test silicon photonic integrated circuit (PIC) wafers, with plans to complete its independent evaluation of PICs within this year. Citing industry insiders, the report notes that both FormFactor and MPI have passed TSMC’s validations for Co-packaged Optics (CPO) and silicon photonics testing equipment. Samsung is leveraging the same testing infrastructure as TSMC to conduct optoelectronic characteristic tests on PIC wafers—including wavelength-domain and frequency-domain assessments—to verify whether optical components achieve the designed optical signal transmission and electro-optic conversion. Previously, Samsung outsourced PIC wafer verification to external institutions like Belgium’s imec; it is now building an in-house testing environment for repeat evaluations. The company also plans to proceed with customer evaluations and has indicated relevant projects will enter mass production starting in the second half of this year. The report adds that Samsung aims to launch silicon photonics foundry services in 2027, offering optical component process technologies, device libraries, and Process Design Kits (PDK). It is also advancing development of optical engines combining Electronic Integrated Circuit (EIC) and PIC, and will expand CPO applications from network switches to products like GPUs and CPUs in the future.