Lightwave Logic + Tower deal boosts onshore photonics
Lightwave Logic’s partnership with Tower Semiconductor and Tower’s Newport Beach fab sent its stock sharply higher as the tie-up pushes photonic IC production on U.S. soil and taps Lightwave’s polymer tech for high-speed links reported. The move underscores onshoring momentum for photonics and components vital to AI, aerospace, and high-speed comms.
Lightwave Logic and Tower signed a development agreement on March 11, 2026 to integrate Lightwave’s electro‑optic polymer modulator reference designs into Tower’s PH18 silicon‑photonics platform newswire.com. The program targets modulators with bandwidths above 110 GHz and compact, low‑power 200G/400G architectures, with multiple engineering tapeouts scheduled for 2026 stocktitan.net; Tower said the deal will add Lightwave’s designs to the PH18 PDK so customers can implement polymer‑based modulators on a scalable foundry flow accessnewswire.com. Lightwave’s Perkinamine™ electro‑optic polymer passed Telcordia GR‑468 85/85 environmental testing on July 15, 2025, showing about a 1.6% average absorbance change after 1,000 hours and enabling the company to prepare BEOL encapsulation and PDK materials for foundry use accessnewswire.com. Tower’s PH18 platform is offered at its 200‑mm Newport Beach, CA fab and explicitly targets O‑band and C‑band data‑center interconnects while providing PDKs compatible with Cadence, Synopsys and Ansys tool flows towersemi.com; Tower and Lightwave will invite customers to early engineering tapeouts during 2026 as part of the integration and validation plan markets.financialcontent.com.
