Overview
Light Trace Photonics is a Bristol-based deep-tech start-up developing the Universal Photonic Interconnect (UPIc): a detachable, ultra-high-performance fibre-chip interconnect built from the ground up for co-packaged optics (CPO) and pluggable transceiver volumes.
UPIc attaches processed single-mode fibre directly to photonic chips; no micro-optics, no bump-on-carrier, no active alignment, no epoxy. For AI data-centre customers this is what makes CPO manufacturable. It removes the fibre-attach bottleneck that drives cost, yield loss and assembly complexity, and because the connection is detachable, modules can be reworked and serviced rather than scrapped. This is critical as optics move inside the package at hyperscale.
Light Trace Photonics has demonstrated repeatable, detachable connections below 800 mdB loss with passive alignment in under three seconds, and are targeting sub-400 mdB with a clear route to millions of units. UPIc is currently at TRL 5, moving to reliability qualification with early customer design-in planned over the next 18 months.
Light Trace was founded in 2021 by Dr Jake Biele (CEO) and Dr Dominic Sulway (CTO) and is backed by leading deep-tech investors. Advisers include Dr Anthony Yu, former VP of Silicon Photonics at GlobalFoundries.
Pluggable transceiver and CPO module developers, hyperscalers and AI hardware teams for UPIc integration feasibility and product design-in
Silicon photonics foundries and OSAT partners to integrate and scale toward volume manufacture, test & measure, and packaging
Strategic investors and industry partners to accelerate the route to high-volume production