Photonic computing company Lightmatter has unveiled the Passage L20 interconnect, designed to support the transition towards multi-rack scale-up and high-bandwidth scale-out in AI data centers.

The company has also launched vClick Optics. Described as the industry’s first detachable fiber array unit (FAU), it helps to overcome scaling challenges associated with co-packed optics (CPO) in high-volume manufacturing environments.

Companies will be able to integrate vClick Optics directly into the wafer fabrication process to allow for earlier testing and validation in the product development lifecycle. Known as “shift left,” this approach has been found to reduce costs and improve yield across 3D-integrated circuits, chiplets, and CPO manufacturing.

According to Lightmatter, the advantages of vClick Optics include high bandwidth DWDM and advanced packaging compatibility, automated assembly that removes the requirement of active fiber alignment, and field serviceability.

California-based Lightmatter specializes in photonics-enabled technologies that use light instead of electrical signals for computing, meaning its chips don’t experience the same heat or resistance as traditional chip architectures. The Passage L20 is the successor to the company’s Passage M1000 and L200 offerings, which were launched in April 2025.

The L20 offers 6.4Tbps optical bandwidth and has been engineered to support both near-packaged optics (NPO) and near-board optics (OBO) applications. It has a SerDes (Serializer/Deserializer - technology which is used to reduce the number of inputs and outputs on an ASIC or FPGA) line rate based on 212.5Gbps PA 4 interfaces, a maximum TDP of 30W, and two wavelength bidirectional transmission on waveguides and fibers.

The interconnect is also capable of achieving double the fiber bandwidth density through bidirectional multiplexing, Lightmatter claims. Each Passage L20 module provides 32 optical ports at 200Gbps per lane DR data rates, meaning it can integrate with next-generation XPUs and switches.

“The demand for our photonic technology is expanding rapidly across a wide range of AI applications that require immediate, large-scale deployment,” said Nick Harris, founder and CEO of Lightmatter. “With the introduction of the Passage L20 optical engine, we are offering a versatile, standards-based platform that complements our advanced 3D-integrated roadmap. This allows our partners to accelerate their time-to-market using existing chassis architectures, providing a validated and highly efficient path to mass deployment of photonic interconnects across the entire data center.”

Commenting on the vClick Optics launch, Ritesh Jain, SVP, engineering and operations, Lightmatter, added: “The increasing complexity in advanced AI chip packages and their production processes necessitates a move toward a known good optical engine at the wafer level. With vClick Optics, we are providing physical optical engine connectivity that integrates seamlessly into the world’s largest and most advanced semiconductor supply chains, ensuring that our L-Series 3D CPO platform is hyperscale volume-ready."

The Passage L20 module is expected to begin sampling in late 2026.