OpenLight

What OpenLight does

OpenLight Photonics, Inc. is a fabless silicon photonics company founded in 2022 and headquartered in Goleta (Santa Barbara), California, with an additional office in Silicon Valley. The company originated as a joint venture between Synopsys Inc. and Juniper Networks and completed its transition to a venture-backed independent company with a $34 million Series A in August 2025, followed by a $50 million Series A-1 in April 2026, bringing cumulative disclosed funding to $84 million. Its core technology is heterogeneous III-V (indium phosphide) integration on silicon photonics, implemented via Tower Semiconductor's PH18DA production-validated process, which enables lasers (DFBs), electro-absorption modulators (EAMs), semiconductor optical amplifiers, and photodetectors to be fabricated together with passive photonic components on a single monolithic Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (PASIC). This eliminates externally coupled laser sources and reduces optical losses between active and passive elements, with Telcordia GR-468 reliability qualification covering all active components.

OpenLight monetizes primarily through a multi-stream licensing-plus-services model: it licenses an open-platform Process Design Kit (PDK) via a right-to-use license, earns per-wafer royalties on customer production through its foundry ecosystem (led by Tower Semiconductor), provides in-house custom PASIC design and layout services for customers lacking silicon photonics expertise, and guarantees volume PASIC production through its manufacturing partners (Jabil, TFC). Its product portfolio spans reference PICs and components from 800G DR8 through 1.6T DR8 DFB-based PICs to 3.2T DR8 silicon photonics PICs, along with 224G InP-based modulators and 400G per lane EA modulators. The company's primary go-to-market motion combines enterprise field sales with a 20+ partner ecosystem (foundry, design services, EDA, packaging, DSP, drivers, test) and event-driven demand generation around OFC, ECOC, and PIC industry conferences.

The customer base includes more than 25 companies using OpenLight's PDK across AI data centers, hyperscale networks, telecom, automotive LiDAR, and emerging verticals such as quantum computing and medical photonics. NewPhotonics is the first customer to bring designs to volume production on the PH18DA platform (March 2026). The company serves primary customer segments in AI and data center infrastructure (hyperscalers, AI compute cluster operators, networking OEMs), with secondary segments in telecommunications, automotive sensing, and emerging industrial/healthcare/quantum applications.

Name

OpenLight

Legal name

OpenLight Photonics, Inc.

Website

https://openlightphotonics.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

OpenLight is a fabless silicon photonics company that licenses a Process Design Kit (PDK) and earns per-wafer royalties for heterogeneous III-V (InP) on silicon Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (PASICs), serving 25+ customers across AI data centers, telecom, automotive LiDAR, and emerging verticals with foundry partner Tower Semiconductor.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Silicon Photonics / Photonic Integrated Circuits

NAICS

Semiconductor and Other Electronic Component Manufacturing (3344)

SIC

Semiconductors & Related Devices (3674)

akta.pro primary industry

Optoelectronic / Photonics Foundries (Silicon Photonics/LED/Laser) (HDAHACAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Optoelectronics & Photonics (LED/Laser/Optical ICs) (HDAHAAAH), Design Services & ASIC/SoC Implementation (EDA-Adjacent) (HDAHAFAL)

Keywords

• Silicon photonics
• Photonic integrated circuits
• Heterogeneous integration
• Process design kit
• Optical transceivers

Headquarters

HQ city

Goleta

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. PDK Licensing (Right-to-Use License): OpenLight licenses customers with an open-platform Process Design Kit (PDK) via a RTU (right to use) license, enabling them to design their own PASICs. This is a recurring/one-time licensing revenue stream.
2. Per-Wafer Production Royalties: Device production carries a chargeable license structure, and OpenLight receives royalties for each wafer produced through its foundry partner ecosystem (Tower Semiconductor PH18DA process). This is royalty-based, scaling with customer production volume.
3. PASIC In-House Design Services: OpenLight's in-house engineers provide custom PASIC design and layout services for customers who lack expertise in silicon photonics, generating professional services revenue.
4. Guaranteed PASIC Production Services: OpenLight manufactures customer PASICs via its foundry partners and guarantees the production and operation of the PASIC, generating production/manufacturing services revenue.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

OpenLight licenses a Process Design Kit (PDK) and delivers custom design and production services for Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (PASICs) using heterogeneous III-V (Indium Phosphide) on silicon integration. The platform is validated at Tower Semiconductor's PH18DA foundry process, enabling monolithic integration of lasers, electro-absorption modulators, semiconductor optical amplifiers, and photodetectors on a single silicon photonics chip. Customers use the PDK, in-house design services, or fully managed production to build 800G/1.6T/3.2T optical interconnects for AI data centers, telecom, and automotive sensing.

Product overview

OpenLight delivers a unified custom Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (PASIC) platform rather than a set of disconnected products. The architecture is platform-plus-modules: the OpenLight Process Design Kit (PDK) and the PH18DA InP-on-Silicon photonic platform (co-developed with Tower Semiconductor) form the core platform on which a family of named products are built. These include reference photonic integrated circuits spanning 800G DR8, 1.6Tb DR8 DFB-based PIC, 3.2T DR8 PIC (with LRO and LPO variants), and the Fully Integrated 2xFR4 PASIC, plus component-level building blocks such as the 224G InP-based Modulator and the 400G Per Lane EA Modulator. Around this core, OpenLight offers three customer-facing services — PASIC Design Enablement (PDK access), PASIC Inhouse Design (custom layout), and PASIC Production (guaranteed volume manufacturing) — supported by an evaluation reference design (the OLP-PM13306 400G EAM Evaluation Board on TGV substrate). The combined offering targets datacom, AI/HPC, telecom, automotive/LiDAR, quantum, and industrial sensing markets.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• OpenLight Process Design Kit (PDK) Licensed, open-platform Process Design Kit (PDK) that gives customers access to a comprehensive library of passive and active photonics components (DFB lasers, EA modulators, optical amplifiers/SOAs, photodetectors) for designing custom Photonic Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (PASICs) using OpenLight's heterogeneous III-V-on-silicon process, validated at Tower Semiconductor on the PH18DA process.
• PASIC Inhouse Design Service OpenLight's in-house engineering team designs and lays out a custom PASIC for the customer, providing bespoke silicon photonics design and layout services using OpenLight's PDK for customers who lack internal silicon photonics design expertise.
• PASIC Production Service OpenLight manufactures the customer's PASIC and guarantees its production and operation, leveraging its foundry ecosystem (Tower Semiconductor PH18DA process and back-end partners Jabil, TFC) for volume delivery of customer photonic integrated circuits.
• 1.6Tb DR8 DFB-based PIC First heterogeneously integrated silicon photonics 1.6Tb DR8 PIC on Tower Semiconductor PH18DA, using OpenLight's 1310nm DFB lasers and InP-based 224G EAMs. Includes 4 DFB lasers, 8 224G modulators, 8 SOAs; consumes <2.7W at 80°C; 200G/lane; architecture supports future 3.2Tb at 400G/lane.
• 3.2T DR8 Silicon Photonics PIC First 3.2T DR8 prototype photonic integrated circuits integrating high-performance InP-based EAMs and lasers, with LRO and LPO variants also available. Designed for power efficiency, scalability, and high reliability; samples available for testing and qualification in 2026.
• 800G DR8 Photonic Integrated Circuit OpenLight's first 800G DR8 PIC design, accelerating creation of 800G DR8 transceivers and time to market for datacenter applications.
• 224G InP-based Modulator Indium phosphide (InP)-based modulator that lets datacom customers extend multi-lane DR and FR designs to 224G per wavelength, doubling overall speed without increasing PIC cost. Achieves >63 GHz EAM modulation bandwidth; demonstrated 224 Gbps PAM-4, 340 Gbps PAM-4, 387 Gbps PAM-6, 380 Gbps PAM-8.
• 400G Per Lane EA Modulator 400G per lane electro-absorption modulator built on OpenLight's heterogeneous III-V-on-silicon photonics platform. Flip-chip co-packaged with a MACOM driver, delivering optical modulation amplitude (OMA) of 3 dBm and extinction ratio greater than 3.5 dB; paving the way for next-generation 3.2T and beyond optical transceivers.
• Fully Integrated 2xFR4 PASIC Industry-leading heterogeneous integration of lasers and electro-absorption modulators into a single 2xFR4 PASIC, simplifying customer product development for next-generation connectivity. Samples introduced October 2023.
• OLP-PM13306 400G EAM Evaluation Board on TGV Substrate 400G EAM test board based on OpenLight's heterogeneous integration of InP-on-Si process, integrating a high-speed driver alongside the PIC on a TGV-based PCB with low-loss fiber attach unit. Designed and manufactured by Suzhou TFC Optical Communication; showcases the OpenLight–TFC 400G back-end integration capability at OFC 2026.

Quantifiable outcome

• 1.6T DR8 PIC power consumption reduced from 2.7W to ~2.0W (OFC 2026 demonstration)
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

17 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship / strategic, core / strategic, mid-tier, flagship / foundational and minor.

• Advantest Corporationflagship / strategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 June 2026Advantest and OpenLight announced a partnership to jointly develop scalable, high-volume silicon photonics test solutions for electro-optical devices used in data centers. The collaboration aims to establish an end-to-end test solution addressing the unique manufacturing challenges of silicon photonics technology as the semiconductor industry shifts toward co-packaged optics for AI and high-performance computing applications. Announced June 23, 2026.
• Suzhou TFC Optical Communication Co., Ltd. (TFC)core / strategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 March 2026Continued ecosystem partnership to advance silicon photonics back-end integration on TGV substrate. Joint development of OLP-PM13306 400G test board with TFC-designed TGV-based PCB, FAU integration, and assembly. Collaboration began at OFC 2025 and progressed from 100G/200G to 400G per-lane devices. Provides customers with an additional one-stop shop for optical sub-assembly, streamlining supply chain. Announced March 17, 2026 (building on March 31, 2025 partnership).
• Marvellmid-tierTechnology or Integration · 15 March 2026OpenLight's 1.6T DR8 evaluation board at OFC 2026 features OpenLight's beta 1.6T DFB-based PIC operating with a Marvell Ara 3 nm 1.6T digital signal processor (DSP), with full flip-chip co-packaging. OpenLight also appeared on the OFC 2026 Market Watch panel on 1.6Tbps pluggable modules alongside Marvell.
• MACOMmid-tierTechnology or Integration · 15 March 2026OpenLight's enhanced 400G per lane EA modulator at OFC 2026 features flip-chip co-packaging with a MACOM driver, delivering optical modulation amplitude (OMA) of 3 dBm and extinction ratio greater than 3.5 dB.
• Oriole Networksmid-tierTechnology or Integration · 15 March 2026OFC 2026 in-booth partner showcase: Oriole Networks demonstrated a scalable, all passive backend network technology for AI workloads, built on silicon photonics nanosecond optical circuit switching with predictable and low tail latency.
• GDS Factory (DoplayDo)mid-tierTechnology or Integration · 15 March 2026OFC 2026 in-booth partner showcase: GDS Factory showcased an all-in-one, schematic-driven design solution for the OpenLight platform that combines advanced PH18DA device modeling with programmatic layout, verification, and seamless post layout simulation.
• Spark Photonicsmid-tierImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 15 March 2026OFC 2026 in-booth partner showcase: Spark Photonics presented its design and layout services using the OpenLight Process Design Kit (PDK) with the Luceda Photonics software suite.
• Tower Semiconductorflagship / foundationalTechnology or Integration · 5 March 2026Tower Semiconductor is OpenLight's foundry partner for the PH18DA indium phosphide on silicon photonic platform. Tower's PH18DA process was developed to enable scalable, high-yield manufacturing of heterogeneous photonic ICs, and OpenLight's PDK has been validated at Tower's foundry. The first-ever volume production orders on PH18DA were announced in March 2026, validating the platform as production-ready.
• MaxLinearmid-tierTechnology or Integration · 31 March 2025Co-optimization partnership for 1.6T connectivity. OpenLight's silicon photonics solution is co-demonstrated with MaxLinear's Rushmore 1.6T PAM4 DSP at OFC 2025, addressing the need for energy-efficient <25W optical modules and 200G/lane connectivity for 51.2T and 102.4T class switches.
• Nokiamid-tierTechnology or Integration · 31 March 2025Co-optimization partnership for 1.6T connectivity. Nokia and MaxLinear demonstrated a co-optimized solution built on Nokia's integrated InP PIC platform with OpenLight at OFC 2025 in San Francisco.
• DoplayDo (GDSFactory)core / strategicTechnology or Integration · 28 January 2025Strategic partnership establishing GDSFactory+ platform support for the PH18DA process. DoplayDo is the creator of the popular open-source GDSFactory chip design framework (over 2 million downloads, 75 contributors). The collaboration enables engineers to use GDSFactory to design PICs with OpenLight's PDK, including DRC, LVS, and simulations. Announced January 28, 2025.
• Epiphany (Epiphany Photonic Design House)mid-tierImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 23 September 2024Strategic partnership granting Epiphany access to OpenLight's open heterogeneously integrated III-V-based PDK. Epiphany is a fabless photonic design house based in the Netherlands providing schematic design, circuit simulation, chip layout, packaging, and testing services. Announced September 23, 2024.
• VLC Photonics (Hitachi Group)core / strategicImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 25 March 2024Strategic partnership expanding design and test capacity. VLC Photonics offers PIC design services using OpenLight's PDK with the Synopsys OptoCompiler EDA implementation, plus automated die and wafer-level characterization and high-speed testing up to 110 GHz. Supports scaling the number of designs on Tower Semiconductor's PH18DA process. Announced March 25, 2024.
• Jabilcore / strategicImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 20 March 2024Strategic partnership providing 'Silicon to Solutions' end-to-end manufacturing services for PICs — from assembly and packaging to burn-in and testing. Jabil takes OpenLight wafers to produce packaged optical sub-assemblies at scale, simplifying customers' supply chain management. Announced March 20, 2024.
• Riga Technical UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2024Three-way research collaboration with OpenLight and Keysight Technologies resulting in a Post Deadline Paper Th4C.8 at OFC, entitled 'Heterogenous InP Electro-Absorption Modulator with Si Waveguides for Beyond 200 Gbps/λ Optical Interconnects.' Demonstrated >63GHz bandwidth EAM performance.
• Keysight TechnologiesminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2024Three-way research collaboration with OpenLight and Riga Technical University resulting in the OFC Post Deadline Paper demonstrating >63GHz bandwidth EAM performance for 1.6T Ethernet and AI/ML applications.
• Synopsysflagship / strategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2023OpenLight was originally a Synopsys and Juniper Networks joint venture and spun out to become an independent company with its Series A in August 2025. Synopsys OptoCompiler unified electronic and photonic design platform supports OpenLight's PDK, enabling schematic-driven layout and photonic layout synthesis. Demonstrated linear/direct drive interoperability between Synopsys 112G Ethernet PHY IP and OpenLight's PIC delivering up to 35% power savings.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Intel (Silicon Photonics): Intel has developed integrated silicon photonics transceivers and co-packaged optics for data centers, with vertically integrated manufacturing. It represents the largest competitive threat in integrated laser silicon photonics, competing with OpenLight's open-foundry model via proprietary solutions.
• Marvell Technology (Inphi): Marvell's Inphi division supplies DSPs and optical interconnects for hyperscale data centers (e.g., Marvell Ara 1.6T DSP), making it both a partner (DSP integration) and a competitor (DSP-photonics co-design) for OpenLight's PASIC platform.
• Broadcom: Broadcom is a leading supplier of optical interconnect components for AI infrastructure (post-Cisco/Acacia optics acquisition) and competes across the entire optical stack, including silicon photonics-based transceivers and DSP integration.
• Cisco (Acacia Communications): Cisco's Acacia division designs and manufactures high-performance coherent optical interconnects and silicon photonics-based transceivers, directly competing with OpenLight's 1.6T/3.2T PASIC platform in datacom and telecom markets.
• Lumentum: Lumentum is a leading InP-based photonic components and module supplier, competing in datacom transceivers and laser sources. Natalija Filipovic joined OpenLight from Lumentum, reflecting the talent overlap and competitive positioning in InP photonics.
• Coherent Corp (II-VI): Coherent (formerly II-VI) is a vertically integrated photonics and materials company with InP and silicon photonics capabilities, serving datacom, telecom, and 3D sensing markets — competing with OpenLight across multiple end markets.
• Infinera: Infinera designs and manufactures large-scale photonic integrated circuits (InP-based) for telecom and datacom networks, representing a competing heterogeneous integration approach (though based on InP substrate rather than InP-on-silicon).

Direct peers

• Effect Photonics: Effect Photonics develops highly integrated optical transceivers based on InP photonic integration for 5G, metro, and DCI applications. It represents a competing integrated photonics approach targeting similar high-volume optical interconnect markets as OpenLight.
• DustPhotonics: DustPhotonics develops silicon photonics-based optical transceivers and components for datacom applications. It competes with OpenLight in the 800G/1.6T transceiver market using a different integration architecture (externally modulated laser / EML-based).
• Scintil Photonics: Scintil Photonics develops heterogeneous III-V on silicon photonic integrated circuits using a proprietary integration process. It is the most direct competitor to OpenLight's heterogeneous integration technology, though at earlier stage and smaller scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=oYNkxxaXxl8
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/openlightphotonics

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors10 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

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