(Alliance News) - IQE PLC on Monday said it launched an "industry-first" six-inch indium phosphide, distributed feedback laser platform for artificial intelligence and data centre applications

The Cardiff, Wales-based compound semiconductor wafer product supplier said this would enable scaled production of electro-optic devices "at the core of artificial intelligence, machine learning and cloud data centre networks".

IQE said this was developed in collaboration with Kelvin Nanotechnology Ltd and the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre.

IQE's data infrastructure semiconductor materials are "employed across a diverse range of transceiver platforms".

IQE said it was a pioneer in indium phosphide, "further demonstrating the technology's scalability, enabling a step change in volume manufacturing to satisfy an increasing demand for DFB lasers".

This is alongside ensuring optical interconnect technology "remains cost competitive, as network traffic scales to meet the requirements of generative AI and data intensive applications," IQE said.

"We are pleased to be able to offer our data infrastructure customers an industry first, laser epitaxy on a 6[-inch] InP wafer platform. Scaling our current laser materials technology to deliver a fab-ready service at this size provides an immediate competitive advantage and faster time to market," said Peter Rabbeni, senior vice president of Communications Infrastructure & Security Business Unit of IQE.

Kelvin Nanotechnology Chief Executive Officer Brendan Casey comments: "We are delighted to be able to demonstrate a DFB grating technology fully deployed on a 6[-inch] InP platform with high yield and uniformity, and we look forward to working with IQE in bringing this capability to the market."

Shares in IQE were down 0.2% to 17.46 pence each in London on Monday afternoon.

By Greg Rosenvinge, Alliance News reporter

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