GlobalFoundries (GF) and Marvell have signed a multi-year agreement to increase capacity for GF’s silicon germanium (SiGe) technology at its Burlington, Vermont, facility.

In a statement, the partners said the increased SiGe capacity will support the development of next-generation pluggable optical transceivers, near-packaged optics (NPO), and co-packaged optics (CPO).

GlobalFoundries has been developing SiGe technology for more than a decade to support the high-frequency performance, signal integrity, and power efficiency necessary for advanced optical networking applications.

The chipmaker’s current SiGe portfolio supports 200G-per-lane optical connectivity; however, its roadmap looks to address higher-speed generations and continue to co-integrate SiGe, silicon photonics, and advanced packaging for new optical connectivity architectures, including NPO and CPO.

Unlike pluggable optics, where the transceivers are kept separate from the main chips, CPO integrates optical and electrical components, such as optical engines and switching ASICs, on a single packaged substrate.

“SiGe is where GF’s decades of high-performance radio frequency and analog leadership translate directly into breakthrough optical performance,” said Shankaran Janardhanan, SVP of photonics & RF businesses at GF.

“This agreement reinforces our long-standing relationship with Marvell and reflects the critical role SiGe technology plays in enabling high-speed optical networking for AI infrastructure. We will continue investing in our technology roadmap and manufacturing capabilities both in the US and around the world to support our customers’ future growth.”

Robb Johnson, VP, foundry technology, Marvell, added: “AI is fundamentally changing the way data centers are built, and connectivity is becoming increasingly critical to unlocking the performance of these systems. As the industry moves toward higher-bandwidth optical architectures, including NPO and CPO, Marvell is investing aggressively to lead this transition. Our expanded collaboration with GF will help ensure we have the SiGe technology and manufacturing capacity to support the significant growth we see ahead.”

The announcement comes two months after GF revealed it has signed a letter of intent with the US Department of Commerce, with the expectation that the chipmaker will receive $300 million to support research and development into next-generation silicon photonics.

The agreement also saw the US government take a one percent stake in the company.

DCD took a closer look at co-packaged optics in issue 61 of the DCD>Magazine. You can read that story here.