May 27, 2025 13:10:00

TSMC and Avicena partner to build large-scale AI data centers with low power consumption by enabling high-speed communication between chips using micro LEDs

The world's largest semiconductor manufacturer '

TSMC ' and California-based optical interconnect technology developer ' Avicena ' have announced a partnership to develop a photodetector optimized for the microLED-based chip-to-chip communication system ' LightBundle .' By incorporating LightBundle into the system, it will be possible to build a large-scale AI server while reducing power consumption.

Avicena Works with TSMC to Enable PD Arrays for LightBundle™ MicroLED-Based Interconnects – Avicena
https://avicena.tech/avicena-works-with-tsmc-to-enable-pd-arrays-for-lightbundle-microled-based-interconnects/

TSMC's Unorthodox Optical Leap - IEEE Spectrum
https://spectrum.ieee.org/microled-optical-chiplet

AI data centers, which handle AI training and inference processing, process data in parallel using a large number of GPUs, and the processing power of AI data centers depends not only on the performance of each GPU but also on the data communication speed between GPUs. For this reason, technology to increase the data communication speed between GPUs is being developed.

Optical interconnect technology, which uses optical fiber instead of copper wires, is attracting attention as a high-speed data communications system that can withstand the demands of AI data centers.

While most optical interconnect technologies use lasers as a light source, Avicena's LightBundle uses micro LEDs as a light source, which enables high-speed communication of 1 Tbps/mm while extending the communication distance to over 10 m.

It was also announced that TSMC and Avicena will partner to develop a photodetector optimized for LightBundle. If the photodetector is put into practical use, it will be possible to incorporate LightBundle, which is capable of high-speed and long-distance communication, into AI data centers, which is expected to reduce the power consumption of the entire data center.

'We are pleased to work with Avicena to enhance their AI infrastructure to address the demand for computing scalability with efficient connectivity,' said Lucas Tsai, director of North American operations at TSMC. 'TSMC offers the foundry industry's most comprehensive CMOS image sensor technology portfolio and is well positioned to support Avicena with our expertise.'