Largan Precision and TSMC partner to chase AI opportunities in co-packaged optics

Largan Precision, the company that makes the tiny lenses in your iPhone, is pivoting toward something considerably larger in scope. The Taiwanese optical component giant has teamed up with TSMC to develop co-packaged optics (CPO) technology for AI data centers, a move that could reshape how the world’s most powerful computing systems move data. The partnership targets a specific pain point in modern AI infrastructure: the copper wires connecting chips inside data centers are running out of bandwidth. CPO technology replaces those copper links with light-based interconnects, and Largan wants to manufacture the precision optical components that make it work. From smartphone lenses to silicon photonics Largan has been Apple’s go-to lens supplier for years, building its reputation on manufacturing optical components at extraordinary precision. Now the company is channeling that expertise into collimators and fiber array units (FAUs), two critical pieces of the CPO puzzle that help guide light signals into and out of silicon photonics chips. Largan’s collimator components require alignment accuracy below 0.3 microns. Samples have already been delivered to TSMC for testing, with the coll...