{"id":5416,"date":"2026-04-21T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/?p=5416"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:10:30","slug":"nlm-and-spark-photonics-partner-to-advance-organic-hybrid-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/2026\/04\/21\/nlm-and-spark-photonics-partner-to-advance-organic-hybrid-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"NLM Photonics\u00a0and\u00a0Spark Photonics\u00a0Partner\u00a0to Advance\u00a0Organic Hybrid Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Partnership\u00a0pushes forward\u00a0results on Tower Semiconductor\u2019s PH18M and AIM Photonics\u2019\u00a0300 mm\u00a0silicon photonics platforms\u00a0<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"766\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Spark-and-NLM-Nov-2025-website-1024x766.jpeg\" alt=\"Photo: L-R: Dr. Lewis Johnson, NLM CTO; Kevin McComber, Spark Photonics CEO; and Dr. Scott Hammond, NLM Senior Director, Process Technology at Tower Semiconductor's conference last fall.\" class=\"wp-image-5425\" style=\"width:442px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Spark-and-NLM-Nov-2025-website-1024x766.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Spark-and-NLM-Nov-2025-website-300x224.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Spark-and-NLM-Nov-2025-website-768x575.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Spark-and-NLM-Nov-2025-website-1536x1149.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Spark-and-NLM-Nov-2025-website-2048x1533.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">L-R: Dr. Lewis Johnson, NLM CTO; Kevin McComber, Spark Photonics CEO; and Dr. Scott Hammond, NLM Senior Director, Process Technology at Tower Semiconductor&#8217;s conference last fall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>SEATTLE \u2014 April&nbsp;21, 2026 \u2014<\/strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NLM Photonics<\/a>, a leader in silicon organic hybrid (SOH) photonic&nbsp;solutions, today announced an ongoing design partnership with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sparkphotonics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spark Photonics<\/a>, a photonics design firm, to accelerate&nbsp;the development and integration of NLM\u2019s high-performance SOH&nbsp;solutions&nbsp;across&nbsp;multiple silicon photonic foundry platforms.&nbsp;This collaboration has already advanced&nbsp;projects on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/towersemi.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tower Semiconductor&#8217;s<\/a>&nbsp;PH18M platform and AIM Photonics&#8217;&nbsp;300 mm&nbsp;silicon photonics platform, with&nbsp;additional&nbsp;efforts underway.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">NLM Photonics recently completed&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/2026\/03\/16\/nlm-validates-silicon-organic-hybrid-modulator-technology-with-tower-semiconductors-high-volume-ph18m-platform\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">processing of SOH modulators as part of&nbsp;a multi-project wafer (MPW) run on Tower Semiconductor&#8217;s PH18M silicon photonics platform<\/a>.&nbsp;Spark Photonics&nbsp;provided&nbsp;design&nbsp;services for the&nbsp;modulators&nbsp;and&nbsp;chip layout.&nbsp;NLM&nbsp;developed and&nbsp;executed the&nbsp;oxide open etch&nbsp;required&nbsp;for the deposition of its patented&nbsp;Selerion&#x2122;-HTX organic electro-optic (OEO) material. The results&nbsp;demonstrate&nbsp;the compatibility of Tower&#8217;s PH18 process with NLM&#8217;s SOH technology&nbsp;and&nbsp;lay&nbsp;the&nbsp;foundation&nbsp;for&nbsp;the Process Development Kit (PDK)&nbsp;planned for&nbsp;later this year.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">\u201cSilicon photonics\u00a0(SiPho)\u00a0foundries are aggressively scaling capacity, with players like Tower Semiconductor planning to triple\u00a0SiPho\u00a0output by mid-2026. Integration of advanced modulator technologies, including silicon\u00a0organic hybrid approaches such as NLM Photonics, provide a roadmap for continuing innovation at silicon photonics foundries,\u201d said Vladimir Kozlov, Founder and CEO,\u00a0LightCounting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Spark Photonics also contributed to NLM&#8217;s work on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aimphotonics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">AIM Photonics&#8217;<\/a>&nbsp;300 mm&nbsp;silicon photonics platform, part of a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/2024\/07\/30\/us-air-force-awards-nlm-million-dollar-contract\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">U.S. Air Force AFWERX STTR Phase II contract<\/a>.&nbsp;Spark Photonics&nbsp;developed&nbsp;the&nbsp;layout for a full&nbsp;custom&nbsp;wafer run&nbsp;incorporating&nbsp;NLM modulator designs.&nbsp;Building on prior MPW work, this run is intended to&nbsp;validate&nbsp;designs&nbsp;for a PDK offering on AIM\u2019s process.&nbsp;This will&nbsp;significantly broaden&nbsp;access to the technology for U.S. Government and commercial customers in high-speed datacom, RF photonics, sensing, and other demanding applications.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;Spark Photonics brings deep photonic integrated circuit (PIC)&nbsp;design expertise and a&nbsp;solid&nbsp;understanding of&nbsp;the unique process requirements of SOH technology,&#8221; said Brad Booth, CEO, NLM Photonics. &#8220;Their contributions have been&nbsp;essential&nbsp;to our progress on both the Tower and AIM platforms. We look forward to deepening this collaboration as we&nbsp;develop the SOH recipe for&nbsp;high-volume manufacturing&nbsp;and&nbsp;widespread commercial&nbsp;adoption.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe are dedicated to lowering the barrier to entry for PIC technologies,\u201d said Kevin McComber, CEO, Spark Photonics. \u201cBy integrating NLM\u2019s high-performance modulation with\u00a0Spark Photonics\u2019\u00a0design\u00a0expertise,\u00a0this work is\u00a0establishing\u00a0the\u00a0pathways\u00a0necessary for customers to move from prototypes to production on industry-standard foundry processes.\u00a0Spark Photonics is\u00a0excited to continue building solutions that\u00a0advance\u00a0the\u00a0state of the art\u00a0of integrated photonics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>About NLM Photonics<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">NLM Photonics is architecting the future of photonic communications. Enabled by NLM\u2019s&nbsp;Selerion&#x2122; family of organic electro-optic material and&nbsp;leveraging&nbsp;standard silicon photonic manufacturing, NLM has created a blueprint for building energy-efficient, high-bandwidth photonic interconnects for data centers, AI infrastructure, and quantum networking. For more information, visit&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nlmphotonics.com<\/a>&nbsp;or follow us on LinkedIn at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/nlm-photonics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nlm-photonics<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>About Spark Photonics Design<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Spark Photonics Design&nbsp;(Spark Photonics)&nbsp;is a leading provider of PIC solutions, offering&nbsp;component, circuit, tile, and full-reticle design, layout, and PDK services across all material platforms. The company also sells and&nbsp;supports&nbsp;PIC design software from&nbsp;Luceda&nbsp;Photonics and provides PIC Kits designed&nbsp;for education, training, and&nbsp;measurement validation.&nbsp;For more&nbsp;information, visit&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sparkphotonics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sparkphotonics.com<\/a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;follow Spark on LinkedIn at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/spark-photonics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">spark-photonics<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Media Contact<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Theo McGillivray\u00a0<br>Communication Director\u00a0\u00a0<br><a href=\"mailto:press-relations@nlmphotonics.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press-relations@nlmphotonics.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Partnership\u00a0pushes forward\u00a0results on Tower Semiconductor\u2019s PH18M and AIM Photonics\u2019\u00a0300 mm\u00a0silicon photonics platforms\u00a0 SEATTLE \u2014 April&nbsp;21, 2026 \u2014&nbsp;NLM Photonics, a leader in silicon organic hybrid (SOH) photonic&nbsp;solutions, today announced an ongoing design partnership with&nbsp;Spark Photonics, a photonics design firm, to accelerate&nbsp;the development and integration of NLM\u2019s high-performance SOH&nbsp;solutions&nbsp;across&nbsp;multiple silicon photonic foundry platforms.&nbsp;This collaboration has already advanced&nbsp;projects [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5416"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5434,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416\/revisions\/5434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nlmphotonics.com\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}