ACT - Light Trace Photonics

The problem. AI datacentres are interconnect-bound: expensive accelerator capacity sits idle waiting on data movement. Co-packaged optics (CPO) is the semiconductor industry's structural answer — a multi-billion-dollar market by 2030 — but it is uneconomic to manufacture without one missing piece: a fibre-to-chip connection that is ultra-low-loss, detachable and dense enough for modern packages. Today, no such connector exists.

Our solution. UPIc attaches standard fibre to photonic chips passively — no glue in the optical path, no micro-optics, no active alignment — with proven sub-0.5 dB loss, full detachability and reliability testing well underway. The approach scales to densities competing methods cannot reach without exotic specialty fibre.

This project. An 18-month industrial research programme scaling UPIc from its proven pluggable-class density to CPO-class density, delivering a characterised prototype and the datasets that unlock tier-1 design-in evaluations already in discussion. Team and facilities are in place, with senior advisors from the tier-1 photonics industry.

The business. Asset-light and second-source-friendly: licensed through foundries, manufactured by partners. Ecosystem partnerships are already active under our pluggables programme.

The opportunity. We are seeking approved investor partners to submit an EOI and lead aligned investment alongside a 70% Innovate UK grant, within our larger funding round currently closing.