Key Highlights
- Shares of Lightwave Logic (LWLG) jumped as much as 30% during premarket hours Thursday following the announcement of a strategic development partnership with Tower Semiconductor (TSEM).
- The collaboration will merge LWLG’s electro-optic polymer modulator technology with Tower’s PH18 silicon photonics process design kit.
- The technology is designed for bandwidths exceeding 110GHz, enabling 200G and 400G modulator configurations.
- Both companies have scheduled several engineering tapeouts for 2026 to confirm performance specifications for AI data center applications.
- This partnership comes on the heels of LWLG’s collaboration with Luceda Photonics and SilTerra, while Tower recently announced an Nvidia collaboration for 1.6Tbps optical components.
Shares of Lightwave Logic (LWLG) were already experiencing momentum after climbing more than 15% during Wednesday’s session to settle at $5.02 — marking its strongest performance in over five months. But Thursday brought even more excitement.
The technology firm unveiled a development partnership with Tower Semiconductor (TSEM), triggering an immediate market reaction. LWLG shares skyrocketed up to 30% before the opening bell.
The agreement focuses on incorporating Lightwave Logic’s electro-optic polymer modulator technology into Tower’s PH18 silicon photonics process design kit (PDK). The modulator platform is engineered for bandwidths surpassing 110 gigahertz.
This positions the technology as a viable solution for 400-gigabits-per-lane deployments within photonic integrated circuits — the type of ultra-fast connectivity that artificial intelligence data centers desperately need.
This partnership goes beyond a simple memorandum of understanding. The two firms intend to provide customers with access to engineering tapeouts scheduled for 2026, enabling early customers to test and verify modulator-based configurations on the PH18 platform.
Understanding the Technology
The initiative will test low-power 200G and 400G modulator frameworks intended for deployment in AI infrastructure, high-performance computing environments, and next-generation networking systems.
“This collaboration allows us to bring the performance advantages of our electro-optic polymer modulators into a widely accessible foundry PDK, lowering the barrier for customers to create differentiated photonic solutions and accelerate innovation,” CEO Yves LeMaitre said.
Tower Semiconductor shares also responded positively, climbing approximately 2% in premarket trading after the news broke.
Additional Strategic Partnerships
This Tower Semiconductor collaboration isn’t the company’s sole recent strategic move. In March, Lightwave Logic revealed that its electro-optic polymer modulator technology was incorporated into the Luceda Photonics design platform, working with SilTerra Malaysia’s silicon photonics infrastructure.
That agreement enables engineers to create and execute photonic integrated circuit designs using LWLG’s modulators for 200G and 400G per lane functionality. SilTerra, Lightwave Logic, and Luceda Photonics successfully completed a preliminary tapeout during the first quarter of this year.
Testing and performance verification from that initial tapeout is anticipated around mid-2026.
For Tower Semiconductor, the LWLG partnership complements its February collaboration announcement with Nvidia to create 1.6 terabits-per-second optical components for AI data centers utilizing its silicon photonics technology.
Tower is strategically expanding its AI infrastructure portfolio, and the Lightwave Logic collaboration aligns perfectly with that objective.
LWLG finished Wednesday’s trading session at $5.02. TSEM shares increased nearly 2% in premarket activity Thursday after the partnership disclosure.
