GlobalFoundries and Marvell Expand Partnership for AI Optical Interconnect Capacity
GlobalFoundries and Marvell announced an expanded multi-year agreement to significantly increase Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) manufacturing capacity at GlobalFoundries' Burlington, Vermont facility. This expansion targets rising demand for high-speed optical interconnect products used in AI data centers. As AI workloads push bandwidth requirements beyond traditional limits, transitioning from standard pluggable transceivers to advanced architectures like Near-Packaged Optics (NPO) and Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) is becoming critical. Securing US-based SiGe supply helps reinforce domestic semiconductor manufacturing for next-generation AI hardware infrastructure. GlobalFoundries' SiGe technology platform provides high-frequency performance, signal integrity, and power efficiency required for advanced optical networking. The current technology supports 200G per channel optical connectivity, with roadmap plans to address even higher future bandwidth requirements.
## BACKGROUND
Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) is a semiconductor alloy technology that enhances transistor speed and high-frequency analog circuit performance compared to conventional silicon. In high-bandwidth networking, Near-Packaged Optics (NPO) places optical engines on the board extremely close to switch ASICs, while Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) integrates optics directly onto the same packaged substrate as the chip to reduce power consumption and signal loss.