At present, optical communication continues to develop at a higher rate, and the competitiveness of thin-film lithium niobate in the field of data communication is prominent.
Lithium niobate material is an important material for electro-optical modulation, which perfectly meets the needs of optoelectronic applications.
At present, artificial intelligence has more stringent requirements for cost, power consumption and performance, and thin-film lithium niobate modulators are expected to occupy a larger market share in the context of continuous increase in speed due to their low power consumption, low cost and high performance.
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An overview of the thin-film lithium niobate industry
The modulator is very important in the optical communication system, which is not only related to the bit rate, quality and transmission distance of the transmitted optical signal, but also the key factor that determines the size and power consumption of the base optical module.
At present, electro-optical modulators are mainly divided into three categories: silicon photonic modulators, indium phosphide modulators and lithium niobate modulators.
Among them, lithium niobate crystals are favored for their excellent piezoelectric properties and photoelectric effects.
At present, the development trend of lithium niobate industry is gradually changing from bulk materials to thin film materials, and thin film lithium niobate is an emerging material for manufacturing high-speed modulators.
Compared with traditional lithium niobate modulators, thin-film lithium niobate modulators have significant advantages in device size, electro-optical bandwidth and integration, and are expected to become the mainstream lithium niobate modulator product type in the future.
Thin film lithium niobate for high-speed optical transceiver illustration:
资料来源:Arista,Yole
Compared with silicon photonics technology, it is difficult to achieve the bandwidth of 200G/lane in a single channel, and the bandwidth of traditional solutions is close to the technical limit of 200G in a single channel, while thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) shows higher bandwidth potential.
Thin-film lithium niobate can easily support 800G, 1.6T and higher rate modules due to its high bandwidth, and its performance is significantly better than that of indium phosphide.
At present, the thin film technology solution is in the R&D and introduction stage, and it is expected to see the emergence of some of its applications in 2024.
Thin-film lithium niobate can consume less power than silicon photonics:
数据来源：Innovium，Lightcounting
Thin-film niobic acid industry chain combing
The industrial chain of lithium niobate materials includes upstream crystal growth, midstream manufacturing and processing, and downstream multiple applications.
The upstream material side is to prepare lithium niobate single crystal by niobium oxide, and then the lifting method is used to promote the growth of lithium niobate crystals, or the lithium niobate single crystal thin film is prepared by ion slicing and other technical means; the midstream link is mainly focused on the manufacturing of lithium niobate modulator chips and devices, including the production of bulk lithium niobate modulator and thin film lithium niobate modulator, and the downstream is widely used in optical communications, fiber optic gyroscopes, ultrafast lasers, cable television and other fields.
Diagram of lithium niobate industry chain:
Source: Huajing Industry Research Institute, Xingxingcha
Thin-film lithium niobate market competition pattern and leading combing
The lithium niobate market space is relatively limited and the industry threshold is high, and there are few competitors for lithium niobate modulator manufacturers.
The process of carrier-grade lithium niobate high-speed modulator chip is extremely complex. At present, only Fujitsu, Sumitomo and Continental Optical Library Technology have the ability to supply bulk lithium niobate modulators in batches.
In addition, Continental has made a breakthrough in the upstream lithium niobate thin film materials from Jinan Jingzheng, and has mastered the world's major supply share.
Among the enterprises in the layout of the lithium niobate industry chain, domestic enterprises represented by optical library technology, niobium optoelectronics, and Ningbo Yuanxin are expected to further occupy a dominant position in the market.
Based on high-precision waveguide preparation technology and process error calibration technology, the company has successfully developed a high-performance thin film lithium niobate passive and active optoelectronic device library, and established the first PDK in China. At present, Optical Library Technology is committed to the research and development of thin film lithium niobate coherent and incoherent modulator products of 800Gbps and above. In September 2023, the company released a 128GB thin-film lithium niobate coherent drive modulator and an 800Gb DR8 thin-film lithium niobate modulator chip at the Shenzhen Optical Expo. In addition, the company plans to increase the capital of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Milan Optical Library, by 21 million euros to upgrade and expand the R&D and production base of thin-film lithium niobate high-speed modulators and chip products in Milan, Italy.
epilogue
High-speed electro-optical modulators play a prominent role in large-capacity optical fiber transmission networks and high-speed optoelectronic information processing systems. Among them, thin-film lithium niobate electro-optical modulator is expected to become the leading product in the future electro-optical modulator market due to its many advantages such as frequency bandwidth and strong stability. #光通信 ##光模块##人工智能##科技##财经#
CignalAI predicts that by 2024, the global shipment of high-speed coherent optical modulators will reach 2 million ports, assuming an average of 1 to 1.5 modulators per port, if the market share of thin-film lithium niobate modulators can reach 50%, then its corresponding market size will be about 82 to 11 billion yuan. As the core optical device of the optical communication backbone network, the thin-film lithium niobate modulator is expected to usher in broad development opportunities.
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