- $FORM officially introduced the Pharos™ Optical Probe Series on September 23 for SiPh and CPO testing. - Pharos supports both edge coupling and surface/grating coupling using FAUs with micro-optics tailored to the DUT. - The key is not just optical coupling, but the combination of low-loss coupling, precise alignment, automated calibration, and repeatability in a single probe family. - The family includes short and long configurations for both edge and surface coupling, including applications such as beam expanders and CPO interfaces. - Pharos integrates with $FORM’s SiPh-Tools 4.0 AutoCal and automated alignment workflow and is compatible with TRITON, CM300xi-SiPh, and SUMMIT200 platforms. > The bigger point is that $FORM is expanding beyond the probe station itself and moving further into the optical interface layer of the SiPh/CPO test stack. > As CPO moves toward HVM, repeatable wafer-level optical alignment and coupling could become a major test bottleneck, and Pharos directly targets that layer. > With TRITON positioned at ECOC 2026 as a production-ready SiPh test cell and Pharos now extending into optical probing, $FORM’s strategy to capture more of the wafer-level SiPh test stack is becoming increasingly clear.