Author: Cheng Nuo, Editor: Xiao Shimei
With the acceleration of the commercial application of AIGC, the massive growth of computing power infrastructure required behind it has become an inevitable trend, promoting the accelerated development of data centers in the direction of higher speed and higher performance, and directly driving the increment of optical modules.
As the core component of the optical module, the optical chip has basic optical communication functions such as optical to electricity and electricity to light, and its performance directly determines the transmission rate of the optical module and is an important link in the optical communication industry chain.
According to LightCounting, the global optical chip market size will be $2.7 billion in 2022, and it is expected that by 2027, the market size is expected to grow to $5.6 billion, with a CAGR of 16%.
At present, the production process of optical chips mainly includes five links: chip design, substrate manufacturing, wafer growth, die manufacturing and packaging and testing. Overseas enterprises have formed an industrial closed loop and high industry barriers, and can independently complete key processes such as chip design and wafer epitaxy.
In the domestic market, although some companies have a leading level, most of them are concentrated in chip design, and the whole is still in the stage of accelerating catch-up. Driven by the continued strong downstream demand, which domestic manufacturers are expected to increase their competitiveness first?
1. Yuanjie Technology
Leading supplier of domestic optical chip industry, founded in 2013, mainly engaged in optical chip research and development, design, production and sales business, the main products are 2.5G, 10G, 25G, 50G and higher speed laser chip series products, can be widely used in mobile communication networks, data centers, optical fiber access, wireless communications, vehicle lidar, sensors and other fields.
According to the official website, deep in the field of optical chips for nearly ten years, the company is one of the few chip manufacturers in China that adopts the IDM model, has complete and independent intellectual property rights, and has a full-process business system from chip design to wafer manufacturing to processing and testing.
According to C&C statistics, in 2020, among the domestic indium phosphide semiconductor laser chip manufacturers, the company's external sales revenue ranked first, of which the shipments of 10G and 25G series products ranked first among domestic enterprises in the same industry.
The company adheres to technology to promote the development of enterprises, continues to develop and build competitive barriers, and has built two major platforms, buried laser chip manufacturing platform and ridge waveguide laser chip manufacturing platform, and has accumulated a number of patents with independent intellectual property rights.
At the same time, the company has also mastered eight key technologies, including high-speed modulation laser chip technology, heterogeneous compound semiconductor material docking growth technology, phase shift grating technology, high-power exciter chip technology, etc., and its technical capabilities are in the leading position in the industry.
With advanced technical level and excellent product performance, the company has successfully supplied batch to mainstream optical module manufacturers in the industry such as Zhongji Xuchuang, Mingpu Optomagnetic, Hisense Broadband, etc., and the products have been successfully used in Nokia, ZTE, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, AT&T and many other large communication equipment manufacturers and operators at home and abroad.
2. Mitsuko Shika
Domestic leading optical chip IDM manufacturers, established in 2010 by Shijia Communication Technology and the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, are mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of optical chips and devices, indoor optical cables, cable materials, etc., the main products are PLC splitter chips, DFB laser chips and AWG chip series, as well as optical fiber connectors, indoor optical cables, cable materials, etc.
The company is one of the few domestic manufacturers with both active and passive optical chips and device independent IDM capabilities. In the field of PLC splitter chip products, the company took the lead in completing research and development in China in 2012, breaking the monopoly of Japanese and Korean enterprises, and successfully achieved mass supply.
After 2014, the company's PLC-type optical splitter chip production capacity has gradually increased, and the domestic market share has continued to rise. At present, the company has successfully realized the localization of more than 20 specifications of PLC chip products, and is one of the world's largest PLC-type optical splitter chip suppliers.
In the field of AWG chip products, PLC and AWG are passive chips and have the same technical principles. After 2016, the company rapidly expanded its layout, and has successfully developed passive chip products such as DWDM AWG and data center AWG.
According to the announcement, at present, in the 100G-200G high-speed optical module AWG optical module products, the company has been able to supply commercial use in large quantities, in 400G, 800G series products, the company has completed development, and successfully entered the stage of small batch shipment and customer verification.
According to the prospectus, at present, some of the company's AWG products have entered the supply chain of many leading optical module manufacturers such as Intel and Sols.
In the field of DFB laser active chip products, the company began to cut in 2018, and has completed the development of 2.5G, 10G, 25G and high-power CW DFB and other series of laser chip products. Among them, the company's medium and low-rate DFB products and high-rate DFB products have been shipped in batches.
3. Changguang Huaxin
Domestic semiconductor laser chip leader, established in 2012, mainly engaged in high-power semiconductor laser chips, high-speed optical communication semiconductor laser chips, high-efficiency lidar and 3D sensing chips and related devices, modules research and development, manufacturing and sales and other businesses, products can be widely used in laser advanced manufacturing equipment, high-speed optical communications, machine vision and sensing and other fields.
Deeply engaged in the industry for more than ten years, the company has mastered the core technologies such as device design and epitaxial growth technology, cavity surface passivation treatment technology, FAB wafer process technology, high-brightness beam combination and fiber coupling technology, and has built a process platform covering the whole process of chip design, epitaxial growth, wafer processing, coating, packaging and testing, and 3-inch, 6-inch (the only two in the world and the only one in China) mass production lines.
Among them, in the core business field of high-power semiconductor laser chips, the company has realized the independent control of core technology and production capacity in the whole process of production and design, and is one of the few manufacturers with high-power laser chip design and mass production capabilities in China. In the subdivision of high-power single-tube series chips and high-power bartiao series chips, the company's product power and efficiency and other product performance have been in a leading position in the world.
Relying on the accumulation of technology and experience in the field of laser chips, the company has expanded its business to optical communication chips, VCSEL chips, laser chips, devices and modules and other fields, forming a relatively complete product series and types.
In terms of optical communication chips, according to the announcement at the end of 2022, the company has built a complete process production line covering epitaxial growth, strip etching, end face coating, characteristic testing, packaging screening, etc., or released new products in the near future.
4. Spotlight and fly light
Domestic backlight LED leading manufacturer, established in 2005, mainly engaged in SMD LED devices, Mini/Micro LED devices, optoelectronic devices, optical films, sensors, invisible light, high-end lighting and other LED related products research and development, production and sales.
The company's main products can be divided into two categories of backlight LED and lighting LED according to their use, specifically chip light-emitting LED, TOP LED, side luminescence and high-power LED, etc., which can be widely used in LCD TV, mobile phones, computers, display systems and indoor lighting and other fields.
According to statistics, in the international market LED backlight packaging, the company is the world's largest production enterprise, and the sales of small and medium-sized backlight products rank second in the world, with a domestic market share of more than 30%.
In the field of optoelectronic devices, the company officially entered the optical chip business at the end of 2020 through its participation in Xilian Optical Core. Xilian Optical Core is a domestic high-efficiency optical communication solution provider, mainly engaged in silicon photonics chips, optoelectronic chips, optoelectronic devices and optical modules.
Thanks to the technology and experience accumulated by Xilian Optical Core in the fields of semiconductors and optical communications, as well as the acquisition of Sicoya GmbH, a leading silicon photonics company in Germany, the company successfully built the first silicon photonics chip and packaging and testing production line in China.
At present, Xilian Optical Core has a complete IP portfolio of its own design devices, and has mastered a full set of core technologies in the field of silicon optics covering chips, engines, modules from development, design to tape-out, processing and manufacturing, etc., which can cover a variety of products and applications. Among them, in the field of optical engine and optical module products, the core technology of Xilian optical core has been in a leading position.
According to the company's investor interactive platform, at present, the silicon photonics chip of Xilian optical core can be used as CPO packaging.
5. Guangxun Technology
Domestic optical communication device leader, founded in 2001, mainly engaged in the field of optical communication optoelectronic devices and subsystem products research and development, production, sales and technical services and other business, the main products cover transmission network, access network and data communication network three major fields, specifically transmission transceiver module, fiber amplifier, passive optical device, optoelectronic device, module, board, AOC products, etc.
According to the official website, the predecessor of the company is the Institute of Solid State Devices of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, established in 1976. Based on the technical accumulation of the institute and its own great attention and investment in R&D and innovation, the company's core technology research has made continuous breakthroughs, and the product categories tend to be complete.
According to the announcement, at present, the company has the key technology of optoelectronic device chips and large-scale mass production capabilities, the diversified development of core products such as optical passive devices and optical active modules has been basically completed, and optoelectronic device packaging technology has been successfully applied to 400Gb/s, 800Gb/s and other higher speed optical module products.
At the same time, deeply engaged in the industry for more than 20 years, through a series of capital increase, mergers and acquisitions, the company has now built a comprehensive solution from chips to devices, to modules, subsystems, with vertical integration capabilities of the whole optical communication industry chain, is one of the few domestic optical communication enterprises in the whole industry chain of chips, modules and systems at the same time.
In terms of optical chip products, the company now has the manufacturing capabilities of high-end passive optical chips and high-end active optical chips, has built three photoelectric chip platforms of PLC, III-V and SiP, and independently developed and launched AWG series chips, MCS series chips, FP chips, DFB chips, VCSEL chips, PD chips, APD chips and other products.
Among them, in the field of 10G and below VCSEL/DFB/EML/APD full series of low-end optical chips and 25GDFB high-end optical chips, the company has achieved full coverage and mass production, and is also one of the few companies in China that can achieve mass production of 25GDFB chips.
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