At a glance
| Booth | I3000 |
| Country | TW |
| Website | www.ltphotonics.co.uk |
Company profile
LIGHT TRACE PHOTONICS LTD is a Bristol-based deep-tech start-up founded in 2021 and developing the Universal Photonic Interconnect (UPIc), a detachable, ultra-high-performance fibre-chip interconnect built for co-packaged optics and pluggable-transceiver volumes. UPIc attaches processed single-mode fibre directly to photonic chips and removes micro-optics, bump-on-carrier, active alignment and epoxy from the fibre-to-chip connection. For AI data-centre customers, the company presents this architecture as a way to make co-packaged optics manufacturable by addressing fibre-attach cost, yield loss and assembly complexity. Because the UPIc connection is detachable, modules can be reworked and serviced rather than being scrapped, a capability the company highlights as optics move inside the package at hyperscale. LIGHT TRACE PHOTONICS LTD has demonstrated repeatable detachable connections below 800 mdB loss with passive alignment in under three seconds and is targeting loss below 400 mdB with a route toward large-volume production. UPIc is stated to be at TRL 5 and moving toward reliability qualification, with early customer design-in planned over the next 18 months. The company identifies pluggable-transceiver and CPO module developers, hyperscalers and AI hardware teams as groups for UPIc integration feasibility and product design-in. It also identifies silicon-photonics foundries and OSAT partners for integration and scaling toward volume manufacture, together with test-and-measurement, packaging, strategic-investment and industry partners for the route to high-volume production. The team describes its background as integrated quantum-photonics expertise centered on performance, stability and repeatability. The company states that its fibre-to-chip work enabled record-setting performance for silicon-photonic quantum computing and was validated in a peer-reviewed publication. LIGHT TRACE PHOTONICS LTD also states that it works with organizations in quantum computing and AI hardware and is backed by AI and quantum investors.
Exhibits
The UPIc offering is a detachable fibre-to-chip interconnect that connects processed single-mode fibre directly to photonic chips using passive alignment. The connection is designed with no micro-optics, no bump-on-carrier, no active alignment and no epoxy or glue, reducing the number of attachment elements in the optical interface. Demonstrated performance is repeatable detachable operation with less than 800 mdB loss and passive-alignment time below three seconds. The targeted product is a detachable connection with loss below 400 mdB per connection and a stated route to 10 million units. The company mission sets a longer-term target of 10 mdB loss per connection, reliably across 100 million units, with loss referring to fibre-to-integrated-waveguide loss. The detachable architecture is intended to support module rework and service instead of scrapping a module when the fibre connection must be changed or repaired. The product is positioned for co-packaged optics and pluggable transceivers, with AI data-centre, hyperscale and AI-hardware teams among the stated integration and design-in audiences. The company describes the demonstrated and targeted connection states as steps on a path from current proof points through reliability qualification and customer design-in toward volume manufacture.
Capabilities and products
- detachable fibre-to-chip photonic interconnect
- direct single-mode-fibre connection to photonic chips
- passive alignment with <800 mdB loss and <3s alignment time
- fibre-to-chip connection without active alignment or epoxy
- reworkable and serviceable detachable photonic interconnect