Exclusive: Metal adhesion poses challenge for aluminum nitride in AI optics

As AI and large-scale data center buildouts drive up data transmission speeds, heat is becoming increasingly concentrated in key components. This has drawn attention to ceramic substrates and higher-performance aluminum nitride (AlN) substrates for use in optical communications and advanced packaging. Supply chain sources say, however, that metal adhesion remains a major engineering challenge, one that industry participants are reluctant to discuss publicly.