Copper is choking AI. Staera secures US$4.6M to swap it for light
Every new AI chip arrives with a bigger compute number. Fewer arrive with an honest admission that those chips increasingly sit idle, waiting for data to trickle in over copper wires that were never designed for this kind of workload. Singapore’s Staera Semiconductor is betting its future on that gap. The deeptech startup, formerly known […] The post Copper is choking AI. Staera secures US$4.6M…
The AI chip industry faces an increasing challenge as compute capabilities grow, yet data transmission via copper wires remains inadequate. Singapore-based Staera Semiconductor, formerly known as New Silicon Corporation, has secured US$4.6 million in pre-seed funding to commercialize Lightwire, an optical interconnect solution. Lightwire generates light within the silicon chip itself, eliminating the need for external light sources and bulky copper cables.
Staera, a spin-off from SMRT's Low Energy Electronic Systems (LEES) research group, aims to address the growing power and heat concerns associated with data transfer across various distances in AI systems. Copper's electrical performance deteriorates by a thousandfold over short distances, making the transition from copper to optical interconnects crucial as AI systems demand more power and cooling.
Staera's Lightwire technology integrates the entire optical link within a single commercial silicon wafer, using standard fabrication steps, simplifying packaging and reducing power consumption. Although Lightwire operates at a slower speed than traditional copper or laser-based links, its increased density and lower power consumption may prove beneficial, particularly in Southeast Asia where power shortages for AI servers are already occurring. Despite the promising technology, commercial release is still anticipated several years away.
Written by urgent.news from e27's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
