Lightmatter has introduced vClick Optics, a detachable fiber array unit (FAU) interface intended to address manufacturability and serviceability challenges in co-packaged optics (CPO) for advanced packaging flows. The company says vClick Optics has demonstrated insertion loss of less than 1.5 dB, and it’s targeting 3D CPO-enabled XPUs and switches that need fiber connectivity without making fiber attachment permanent.
Lightmatter ties vClick Optics to its Passage 3D photonic interconnect roadmap, calling out next-generation optical interconnects in the 32–100 Tbps+ range. The design is positioned around Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing support and a detachable optical interface between fiber arrays and photonic integrated circuits (PICs), with an emphasis on high-volume manufacturing.
Technically, vClick Optics combines SENKO’s SEAT and MPC connector technologies with Lightmatter’s vertically expanded-beam photonics approach to form a detachable interface between the FAU and the PIC. Lightmatter also says the interface is “mold-and-grind compatible,” and it has been demonstrated in ASE’s advanced packaging flows. Another production-oriented claim: vClick Optics “does not require active fiber alignment” during manufacturing, which—if it holds in real lines—can materially reduce assembly complexity and test time for optical attach steps.
The practical angle for data center infrastructure teams is serviceability. Once co-packaged optics land inside dense switch or accelerator packages, connectorization choices ripple into sparing strategies, repair workflows, and how operators think about failures in the optics-to-package boundary. A detachable FAU with low insertion and re-insertion loss is a straightforward requirement if the goal is to treat optics as field-serviceable hardware rather than a permanent, scrap-on-failure assembly.
Ritesh Jain, SVP of Engineering and Operations at Lightmatter, said, “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,” adding that vClick Optics is meant to integrate into “the world’s largest and most advanced semiconductor supply chains.” ASE VP of Engineering and Business Development Calvin Cheung said, “Integrating vClick technology into high-volume advanced packaging flows is a vital step toward enabling detachable fiber connectivity for co-packaged optics and emerging XPU platforms.”
Lightmatter also disclosed eClick Optics, an edge-coupling approach aimed at larger die complexes, and linked it to the Passage M1000 reference platform, describing it as complementary for “specialized, large-format hardware.”
Source: Lightmatter
