Nvidia shows optics-on-interposer CPO prototypes, DWDM at 256 Gb/s per fiber
At SEMICON West 2026, Nvidia presented work titled "Optical Integration for the Next Generation of AI" and said it has developed prototype chips that move optical engines from the organic substrate onto the silicon interposer, a technology it calls OOI (Optics-on-Interposer). Nvidia says removing the organic substrate can yield higher bandwidth density and lower power consumption; in its 200T ASIC packaging comparison, conventional organic-substrate optics span about 100 mm while OOI concentrates key components within roughly an 8 mm interposer. Separately, a still-research-stage DWDM demo used eight wavelengths at up to 32 Gb/s each to reach 256 Gb/s per optical fiber path. Principal Research Scientist Nikola Nedovic said the company is proposing and evaluating technologies for future products while addressing challenges that prevent commercialization.
Nvidia frames these optical-integration approaches as a way to ease connectivity bottlenecks in large-scale AI systems, with higher bandwidth density and lower power for future chips and AI factories.
NVIDIA has developed prototypes of its next-generation CPO and Optical Fiber technologies which will be leveraged by future products.
NVIDIA Aims Advanced CPOs On Future Chips, Moving Optical Engines From Substrates To Interposer
As the industry moves to develop advanced CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) solutions to address AI and compute requirements at scale, researchers at NVIDIA are already developing next-gen solutions that imply a range of advancements compared to existing architectures.
During SEMICON West 2026, NVIDIA presented "Optical Integration for the Next Generation of AI," which discusses how approaches such as co-packaged optics and DWDM (dense wavelength-division multiplexing) can enable tighter integration and help scale connectivity across future AI systems.
Image Source: The Elec
The topic was presented by NVIDIA's Principal Research Scientist, Nikola Nedovic, who has also shared an interesting research paper, titled "Beyond CPO: A Motivation and Approach for Bringing Optics Onto the Silicon Interposer" back in 2023.
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