Tower Semiconductor and LightIC team up to bring silicon photonics to automotive LiDAR and AI-driven sensing
Press Release, 5 January 2026
Tower Semiconductor has announced a strategic collaboration with LightIC Technologies to push silicon photonics a technology that uses light on silicon chips for sensing and data transmission out of data centers and into real-world automotive and physical artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The deal leverages Tower’s mature silicon photonics foundry to support LightIC’s next-generation Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) LiDAR products, including the long-range Lark™ unit for vehicles and the compact FR60™ LiDAR for robotics and AI applications. This move highlights how photonics, long used to speed up data links in cloud computing, is now stepping into integrated sensing technologies that can help cars and robots better perceive their environment.
FMCW LiDAR a variation of laser-based ranging technology capable of measuring both distance and velocity is seen as a key enabler for advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous vehicles. Combining LightIC’s silicon photonic design know-how with Tower’s manufacturing platform aims to make high-performance LiDAR more scalable, cost-effective and compact. By integrating coherent optical functions directly onto silicon chips, the partners expect to improve size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) metrics compared with traditional LiDAR modules. That could help LiDAR capture a bigger slice of a growing global automotive sensor market, which industry analysts project could expand robustly over the coming years.
Executives from both companies emphasize that this partnership is more than a production shift — it represents a transition of velocity-aware sensing technology from lab prototypes into real-world automotive and Physical AI deployments. Tower’s silicon photonics expertise, already proven in large-scale data center optics, provides a proven foundation for manufacturing, while LightIC’s design capabilities bring advanced coherent sensing to life on a scalable silicon platform. If successful, the collaboration could accelerate the adoption of highly integrated photonic LiDAR solutions in future vehicles and intelligent machines, helping them “see” farther, faster and with greater detail.
Compiled using AI
