By Selye Moon
Publication Date: 2026-10-15 10:22:00
Nvidia has unveiled next-generation co-packaged optics (CPO) technology that places optical engines directly on the interposer carrying computing chips rather than on the package substrate.
By eliminating the organic substrate from the electrical signal path, the technology can increase bandwidth density and reduce power consumption. Nvidia said it has developed a prototype.
Nikola Nedovic, a principal researcher at Nvidia, presented the research at SEMICON West 2026 in San Francisco on Oct. 13.
The technology, called optics-on-interposer (OOI), moves optical engines from the organic package substrate onto the interposer that carries computing chips. Electrical signals travel directly through the interposer’s short, fine-pitch interconnects, similar to the architecture connecting graphics processing units (GPUs) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM). While existing mass-produced CPO brings optical engines closer to chips, OOI places them even closer. Current designs route signals from the chip through the interposer and organic substrate to the optical engine. OOI eliminates the organic substrate from that path.
Nvidia also unveiled dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology designed to increase the amount of data carried by a single optical fiber. The technology transmits separate data streams using multiple wavelengths of light,…
