Photonics industry hitting a weird supply chain wall: legacy 90nm and 45nm fab capacity is now the critical bottleneck. These older process nodes are essential for manufacturing photonic integrated circuits (PICs) because they balance cost, yield, and the specific geometries needed for waveguides and optical components.
The issue? Most semiconductor fabs have moved to cutting-edge nodes (5nm, 3nm) or shut down older lines. But photonics doesn't need transistor density—it needs mature, stable processes with good control over feature sizes in the 45-90nm range for efficient light manipulation.
This creates a supply crunch: companies building optical interconnects, LiDAR systems, or quantum photonics are scrambling to secure fab time on equipment that's considered obsolete in the mainstream chip world but is gold for optics. The mismatch between what's profitable for foundries versus what photonics needs is creating real production delays.
Expect to see either: (1) dedicated photonics fabs emerging, (2) existing players like GlobalFoundries or Tower Semiconductor carving out legacy capacity, or (3) vertical integration where photonics companies buy or lease old fab lines outright. The economics are tricky but the demand is real—especially with AI clusters needing faster optical I/O and autonomous vehicles requiring cheap LiDAR.
The issue? Most semiconductor fabs have moved to cutting-edge nodes (5nm, 3nm) or shut down older lines. But photonics doesn't need transistor density—it needs mature, stable processes with good control over feature sizes in the 45-90nm range for efficient light manipulation.
This creates a supply crunch: companies building optical interconnects, LiDAR systems, or quantum photonics are scrambling to secure fab time on equipment that's considered obsolete in the mainstream chip world but is gold for optics. The mismatch between what's profitable for foundries versus what photonics needs is creating real production delays.
Expect to see either: (1) dedicated photonics fabs emerging, (2) existing players like GlobalFoundries or Tower Semiconductor carving out legacy capacity, or (3) vertical integration where photonics companies buy or lease old fab lines outright. The economics are tricky but the demand is real—especially with AI clusters needing faster optical I/O and autonomous vehicles requiring cheap LiDAR.