Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

As early as 1979, Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen was optimistic about photonics and put forward the concept of photonic industry around photonics, but up to now many ideas have not been realized and many values have yet to be excavated. [1]

Nowadays, photonics and electronics represented by optical chips are causing a scientific revolution. Chips from electricity to light will be a strategic opportunity for our country to catch up. The photon revolution has arrived, but it is not as easy as thought to make light available to people.

The perfect combination of light and electricity the essence of most modern chips is to convert environmental signals into finely manipulated electrical signals, or the process of converting processed electrical signals into environmental signals (such as electroheat generated by electricity or magnetic field generated by Lorentz force). In the same way, light can also be converted into electrical signals. The core device to realize the conversion of photoelectric signals is the optical chip. Without it, we cannot communicate with light.

The optical chip has long gone deep into everyone's life. You and I both know that if a home computer wants to connect to the network, it is necessary to install optical fiber and "light cat". The contributor to the normal operation of this system is the optical chip.

Why does it have to be an optical chip?

This is because photons as information carriers have inherent advantages, which can achieve information transmission rates of dozens of Tb / s, achieve low switching delay and high transmission bandwidth, achieve multi-channel simultaneous communication, and have the performance of ultra-low power consumption. Research shows that data in light-based devices move at the speed of light, which is 10 times faster than ordinary electronic circuits. [3]

Although the optical chip is a talented player, it is inseparable from the electric chip to play a role in the system. Both of them and PCB, structure, casing further constitute the optical device, and based on this processing as the optical module to achieve the final function, and finally applied to the market.

The position of optical chip in the industrial chain [4] at present, the technical concept of optical chip has multiple meanings, including optical communication, optical computing, optical quantum and so on, which are widely used in industry, consumption, automobile, medical and other fields. However, its typical application scenario is still optical communication, which is also the core application field.

Optical chip optical communication in optical communication refers to the large-capacity data transmission mode in which optical signals are transmitted by optical fiber as the carrier, and the control of light is realized through optical chips and transmission media.

In the optical communication industry chain, the optical chip is the most core part, which is generally divided into 2.5Gb / s, 10Gb / s, 25Gb / s and above various modulation rates. The faster the rate, the greater the semaphore transmitted by the optical module per unit time.

At the same time, the optical chip is also the largest part of the material cost structure of the optical module. Generally speaking, the optical chip accounts for about 40% of the material cost of the middle-end optical module, and the material cost of some high-end optical modules can even account for more than 50% [5]. In contrast, the cost of the electric chip usually accounts for 10% / 30%. The higher the speed, the higher the cost of the optical module. [6]

Application position of optical chip in optical communication system [4] according to function, optical chip is mainly divided into two types: laser chip and detector chip. The laser chip is used to transmit signals and convert electrical signals into optical signals. According to the optical structure, laser chips are further divided into surface emitting chips and edge emitting chips, which mainly include VCSEL, FP, DFB and EML; detector chips to receive signals, and convert optical signals into electrical signals, including PIN and APD.

For optical chips, the biggest demand of the market is high speed and high bandwidth. Since the 1960s, optical chips have been improving in materials, structural design, component integration and production processes. At present, the maximum commercial speed of EML laser chips has reached 100Gb / s DFB and VCSEL laser chips has reached 50Gb / s. At the same time, these changes also provide the basis for the development of optical chips to a wider range of applications, such as vehicle lidar, medical and so on. [4]

The characteristics and application scenarios of different optical chips [4] the production and manufacture of optical chips is difficult. The production procedures are MOCVD epitaxial growth, grating technology, optical waveguide fabrication, metallization process, end coating, automatic chip test, chip high frequency test, reliability test and so on. Among them, the epitaxial process is the most important and highest technical threshold link in optical chip production, and the process level directly determines the cost performance index and reliability. Behind an excellent optical chip is high investment, long R & D cycle, greater R & D risk and extremely fast technology update speed.

As the optical chip is in the upper reaches of the industrial chain, it will involve complex raw material problems. It is generally manufactured by compound semiconductors and is mainly based on III-V materials represented by gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium phosphide (InP). Through the generation and absorption of photons accompanied by the internal energy level transition process, the photoelectric signals can be converted into each other. In addition, raw materials such as electronic special gas, photoresist and wet electronic chemicals are also used in the manufacturing process.

The main classification of optical chips [4] Optical chips as upstream components, the market is mainly driven by downstream optical modules. According to Guoxin Securities, the global market for optical chips is estimated to be about $3.5 billion in 2021 and $6 billion in 2025, based on the average gross profit margin of the optical module industry and Light Counting's global market size of more than $15 billion for optical modules. [7]

Optical communication industry chain and market scale [7] with the explosive growth of data demand, people have higher and higher requirements for the speed of optical chips, while academia and industry focus on silicon chips.

Looking forward to the next three years with the combination of photons and electrons, silicon optical chip (or optoelectronic fusion) will be a major trend of optical communication, which will support the high-speed information transmission of large data centers. At present, silicon optical chip technology research is led by the United States, Europe and Japan. 100Gb / s, 200Gb / s and 400Gb / s silicon optical products occupy more than 30% of the global coherent optical module market. [8]

As the name implies, silicon optical chip is to learn from each other's strengths and give play to the advantages of both silicon photon and silicon electronic chips. This concept was born as early as 40 years ago, but silicon-based luminescence has always been a huge problem, so it is generally based on silicon, and a variety of materials are introduced to achieve luminescence [9]. It is divided into four manufacturing platforms: SOI (silicon on insulator), SiN, III-V (GaAs and InP), lithium niobate thin films on silicon substrates. [10]

Complex material science problems give rise to more technical challenges, such as silicon optical coupling process, wafer automatic testing and cutting, silicon optical chip design tools and so on. In addition, subject to the limitations of the industrial chain and process level, silicon optical chips have not highlighted their advantages in terms of production capacity, cost and yield. However, the subversive nature of silicon optical chips has triggered an upsurge of research, and the technology is becoming more and more mature and is about to enter the stage of large-scale commercial use. [11]

The function of silicon optical chip is far from this. It has the characteristics of high computing speed, low power consumption and low delay. In the manufacturing process, it is similar to microelectronic devices, but it does not have to pursue the limit reduction of process size. It may be the key to help people break through the ceiling of Moore's Law [12]. More importantly, doing it well is equivalent to opening up the joints of the photon industry. Scientists generally believe that photons, like electrons, can be used as information carriers to generate, process and transmit information, in which optical computing is one of the important advanced fields. The photoelectric conversion technology of optical communication can be used in optical computing, and the low-loss and high-density photon integration required by optical computing will further promote the development of optical communication. In the next 5 to 10 years, optical computing based on silicon optical chips will gradually replace part of the computing scenarios of electronic chips. [13]

According to Yole, the global market for silicon chips will grow from US $87 million to US $1.1 billion from 2020 to 2026. Among them, consumer health, data center, photon computing, co-packaging engine, long-distance transceiver will be the main market segments. [14]

Frequent mergers and acquisitions in the silicon field in recent years [15] the ideal is plump, if you want to go so far, you still have to keep your feet on the ground and first do a good job of the existing optical communication chips.

The chaser of the optical chip, Europe, the United States and Japan started early and accumulated a lot of technology on the optical chip, and they are the market leaders. Through the continuous accumulation of core technologies and production processes, the research institutions and advanced enterprises in these countries have gradually realized the industrial closed loop and established extremely high industry barriers.

On the other hand, China started relatively late, and high-speed optical chips (25Gb / s and above) rely heavily on imports, which has a significant gap with the leading level of foreign industry. Data show that the localization rate of 2.5Gb / s optical communication chips in China is close to 50%, but the localization rate of optical communication chips with 10Gb / s and above is less than 5%, and it is very dependent on companies such as Lumentum, Broadcom, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and so on. [16]

At the same time, although domestic optical chip manufacturers generally have back-end processing capabilities beyond wafer epitaxial links, the core epitaxial technology is not mature and high-end epitaxial wafers need to be imported, which greatly limits the development of high-end optical chips.

Major participants in the optical chip market [17] in 2018, the China Electronic components Industry Association issued the "Technology Development Roadmap of China's Optoelectronic Devices Industry (2017-2022)". It was pointed out that Chinese manufacturers only mastered the manufacturing process and supporting IC design and closed testing capabilities of lasers, detectors, modulators and PLC / AWG chips at and below 10Gb / s, and the capability of high-end chips lagged more than one generation or two generations behind the world. And lack of complete and stable optical chip processing platform and talent, resulting in long chip research and development cycle, low efficiency, and gradually widening the gap with foreign countries. At that time, it was clear that the focus was on 25Gb / s and above rate lasers and detector chips. [18]

Calculation of the localization rate of optical transceiver modules and optical chips and electric chips in 2017 [18] by 2022, domestic high-end optical chips have made obvious breakthroughs, but they still lag far behind the international giants. And the key 25Gb / s laser and detector chips, Yuanjie Technology, Wuhan Minxin, Yunling Optoelectronics, Optical Technology and other enterprises began mass production, but the overall sales scale is still small. Take Yuanjie Technology as an example, the shipment volume of its 10Gb / s and 25Gb / s laser chip series has been among the best among similar products in China, but its sales in the first half of 2022 is only 41 million yuan. [19]

For domestic optical chip pursuers, the division of labor mode is the key. The chip industry is divided into two modes: Fabless (design company) and IDM (design, manufacturing, packaging), in which IDM mode is the main mode of the dominant optical chip. On the one hand, the core of optical chip lies in wafer epitaxy technology; on the other hand, due to the use of III-V semiconductors, optical chip design and wafer fabrication are required to feedback and verify each other.

The difference of different division of labor mode [20] throughout the market, typical players of domestic optical chips have chosen IDM mode, such as Shijia Photon, Changguang Huaxin, Yuanjie Technology. On the one hand, IDM can respond to market demand in time and flexibly adjust various process parameters in the production process; on the other hand, it can efficiently troubleshoot problems and accurately reach the problems of product design, production and testing; in addition, IDM mode forms a complete closed-loop process, which is not only autonomous and controllable, but also can effectively protect intellectual property rights. [21]

Typical players of domestic optical chips, tabulation, fruit shell hard science and technology reference, company prospectuses for nearly two years, optical chips are also lively in the field of investment and financing. According to the statistics of fruit shell hard technology, 25Gb / s and above high-speed optical chips, automotive lidar chips and silicon optoelectronics (optoelectronic fusion) are the most popular and gold-absorbing tracks, and they are also recent commercial projects. Other projects are more focused on the future, such as optical computing, light quantum, the commercialization process of these projects is often ten or two years, very forward-looking.

Recently, the financing of domestic optical chips is not complete statistics, tabulation, fruit shell hard technology to master advanced optical chip technology, is the key for all countries to compete. In the United States, for example, not only the policy is constantly tilted, but also the industrial giants represented by IBM and Intel and the leading institutions in academia represented by MIT and UCSB are sparing no effort to develop large-scale photonic integrated chips. In addition, optoelectronic integration research projects are also involved in the European Union's Horizon 2020 project and Japan's Advanced Research and Development Program. [22]

Various actions indicate that a scientific and technological revolution with light as the core is brewing.

Mi Lei, the founding partner of China Science and Technology Founding Star, once put forward the "Mi 70 Law", that is, optical technology is the key bottleneck technology to promote the progress of scientific and technological products, and the optical cost accounts for 70% of the cost of all scientific and technological products in the future. [23]

Throughout history, the spread cycle of the scientific and technological revolution is about 60 years, and 60 years have passed since the birth of integrated circuits in the 1960s. Optical chips are undoubtedly the key to lead the next 60 years. Of course, photons are not meant to completely replace electrons, but to cooperate with each other.

The era of optical chips has come, but the chip industry has been a cruel cycle of survival of the fittest and reshuffle, who can chase faster, who will succeed.

References:

[1] Qian Xuesen. Photonics, photonic technology, photonic industry [J]. China Laser, 1979. 6 (1): 1.

Https://www.opticsjournal.net/Articles/OJ157c3606f52a17a5/Abstract

[2] "look out": layout of photonic chips with the strategic vision of scientific and technological revolution. 2022.1.10. Http://lw.news.cn/ 2022-01 excel 10 / c_1310416707.htm

[3] Leslie M. Light-Based Chips Promise to Slash Energy Use and Increase Speed [J]. Engineering, 2021, 7 (9): 1195-1196.

[4] Yuanjie Technology: initial public offering and listing prospectus of Science and Technology Innovation Board. 2022.9.19. Http://static.sse.com.cn/ stock / information / c bind 202209 / ed2747384cb447b2a20b040ced45e098.pdf

[5] head Leopard Research Institute: 2022 China Optical Module Industry Research report (abstract version). 2022.6. Https://pdf.dfcfw.com/ pdf / H3_AP202207221576465739_1.pdf?1658524015000.pdf

[6] Zheshang Securities Co., Ltd.: pay attention to the opportunity for localization of optical chips. June 2020 issue 4. Https://pdf.dfcfw.com/ pdf / H3_AP202006291388250871_1.pdf?1593463535000.pdf

Guoxin Securities: optical device industry research framework and investment opportunities combing. 2022.6.5. Https://pdf.dfcfw.com/ pdf / H3_AP202206061570339493_1.pdf?1654526244000.pdf

[8] Science and Technology China: can Silicon Optical Technology promote the Integration of Optoelectronics and Microelectronics? . https://www.kczg.org.cn/ article / issueDetail?id=942

Guo Jin, Feng Junbo, Cao Guowei. Development and Challenge of Silicon Photonic Chip Technology and Design [J]. ZTE TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL, 2017: 11. https://res-www.zte.com.cn/ mediares / magazine / publication / com_cn / article / 201705/465817 / P020171009579288470018.pdf

Ma Haoran, Li Xiaomin, Wang Yuehai, Yang Jianyi. Research progress and challenges of silicon-based photonic chips [J]. Semiconductor Optoelectronics, 2022pr 43 (02): 218-229.

[11] Science and Technology Daily: Silicon chip: not the "counterpart" of the electronic chip but the "partner" .2021.8.30. Http://www.xinhuanet.com/ tech / 20210830 / a18a6550b75e4163bd0a64489619bdea / c.html

[12] China Science Daily: 100 nanometers will work! Optical chip alleviates chip bottleneck. 2021.5.21. Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/ s / evr_f5spjD8yfEplYmHTfA

[13] Aridamo House: top Ten technological Trends in 2022. Https://damo.alibaba.com/ techtrends / 2022 / silicon-photonic-chips?lang=zh

[14] Yole:Silicon photonics sticks its head above the parapet.2021.11.23. https://www.i-micronews.com/silicon-photonics-sticks-its-head-above-the-parapet/?cn-reloaded=1

[15] Huaxi Securities: Silicon Light: a new path of "surpassing Moore", accumulating abruptly and building up the future. 2022.1.14. Https://pdf.dfcfw.com/ pdf / H3_AP202201171540919727_1.pdf?1642417584000.pdf

[16] Guotai Junan Securities Co., Ltd.: application report on tutoring record of Shaanxi Yuanjie Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. 2020.9.2. Http://www.csrc.gov.cn/ shaanxi / c101329 / c1404264Compact 1404264 / files / 1614654318079_45691.pdf

[17] Guoxin Securities: optical device industry research framework and investment opportunities combing. 2022.6.5. Https://pdf.dfcfw.com/ pdf / H3_AP202206061570339493_1.pdf?1654526244000.pdf

[18] China Electronic components Industry Association: technology Development Roadmap of China Optoelectronic device Industry (2018-2022). Https://www.miit.gov.cn/ n1146290 / n1146402 / n1146440 / c6001146 / part / 6005856.pdf

[19] Optical communication observation: at the end of the five-year period, what is the current situation of the development of China's optical device industry? .2022.7.5. Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/ s/516umRgzweTXF1XX8fyBTw

[20] Changguang Huaxin: initial public offering of shares and listing prospectus of Science and Technology Innovation Board. 2021.6.29. Http://static.sse.com.cn/ stock / information / c bind 202106 / ef8b408d2bb54bd7916dd92fd5d21c82.pdf

[21] Xinhua newspaper website: IDM mode empowers, Shaanxi Yuanjie Science and Technology is expected to achieve high-quality development. 2022.7.27. Http://www.xhby.net/ sy / cb / 202207 / t20220727_7632733.shtml

[22] large-scale photonic integrated chip [J]. Journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2016, 31 (Z2): 192-194. Http://www.bulletin.cas.cn/ publish_article / 2016 / Z2/2016Z241.htm

[23] DeepTech Deep Technology: the most persistent investment force in China: invest 80 optical technology start-ups in 7 years, waiting for the photon integration era to break out. 2020.6.11. Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/ s / UV1N4BWKrXbk6ODht_O1eQ

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: fruit Shell hard Technology (ID:guokr233), Fu Bin (author Li Tuo, Liu Dongyu) (Editor)

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