As artificial intelligence clusters grow, moving data efficiently has become as critical as processing it. On September 21, 2026, ams OSRAM unveiled a breakthrough thin-film VCSEL technology for AI scale-up, demonstrating a connectorized multi-core fiber solution with ecosystem partner BizLink at ECOC 2026 in Malaga. The announcement, made via NEWMEDIAWIRE, highlights a shift toward highly parallel “wide-and-slow” optical interconnects that promise lower power consumption and latency for next-generation AI infrastructure.
The company’s new 850nm Thin-Film microVCSEL platform combines top-emission VCSELs, dense 25 µm pitch addressable arrays, silicon TSV integration, and compatibility with standard multimode fiber. It has achieved error-free 32 Gb/s NRZ operation with approximately 0.25 pJ/bit energy efficiency, and reliability testing showed no failures after more than 2,000 hours under elevated temperatures and current overstress. These results position the technology as a scalable solution for ultra-high-bandwidth optical links.
Central to the strategy is the wide-and-slow architecture, which distributes data across many lower-speed optical lanes instead of a few high-speed channels. This approach reduces system complexity while enabling lower latency, lower power, and scalable bandwidth growth. The partnership with BizLink, a specialist in optical connectivity, combines ams OSRAM’s addressable microVCSEL arrays with BizLink’s fiber-array integration to create a connectorized multi-core fiber demonstrator, shown privately to select customers at ECOC 2026.
“AI infrastructure requires a fundamentally different approach to moving data and wide-and-slow optical architectures deliver a step-change in power efficiency, latency and scalability,” said Ashkan Seyedi, Vice President and General Manager of Optical Interconnects at ams OSRAM. “This demonstrator validates a fundamentally different optical interconnect architecture optimized for ultra-low power and low latency operation,” added Hendrik Coldenstrodt, CTO of the Computing and Transportation Business Group at BizLink Group.
The technology builds on ams OSRAM’s experience with EVIYOS™, a highly addressable micro-emitter platform for adaptive headlamps that proved the manufacturability of its Digital Photonics platform. The same principles are now extended to AI infrastructure and mobile/wearable applications. The company is also developing fully integrated 3D photonics stacks combining microVCSEL arrays, micro-photodiode arrays, and mixed-signal CMOS electronics. More details are available on the company’s technology page.
This development matters because AI’s exponential growth demands interconnects that can handle massive data volumes without prohibitive power costs. By advancing a wide-and-slow ecosystem with partners like BizLink, ams OSRAM aims to accelerate industry adoption of optical solutions that could make future AI clusters more sustainable and cost-efficient. The company’s shares trade on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker AMS.
