Nomura Global AI Trends Tracker: 70th Expert Call — Glass Bridges and Advanced Packaging
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Key Views
Glass bridges will not fully replace FAUs but add an intermediary layer for mode-field matching and density transition. Edge coupling offers better efficiency and bandwidth, yet NVIDIA adopts surface coupling because 6.4T CPO at 200G per channel requires 32 fibers, where 2D arrays better control multi-channel loss consistency. Glass carriers are essential for 2.5D packaging, while glass core substrates—despite advantages in deformation suppression, lower electrical loss, and higher bandwidth support—remain far from commercialization due to low TGV yields, brittleness, and absent reliability data.
Outlook
Experts expect NPO to achieve large-scale commercialization earlier than CPO, benefiting from power efficiency, bandwidth upgradability, maintainability, and pluggable electrical interfaces. No specific timeline or market size was provided.
Recommended Securities
- BOE (000725 CH): Buy, covered by Frank Fan; developing glass core substrates with Corning.
- Corning (GLW US): Unrated; uses ion-exchange glass bridges and partners with BOE.
- NVIDIA (NVDA US) / Intel (INTL US): Unrated.
- AKM Meadville: Unlisted; glass core substrate samples submitted.