China’s state-run semiconductor research institute says it has achieved a “milestone” in the development of silicon photonics, allowing the country to overcome current technological barriers in chip design and achieve self-sufficiency under US sanctions. He said it could be useful.
The JFS Institute, based in Wuhan, the capital of central Hubei province and a national hub for photonics research, says it has become the first in China to successfully turn on a laser light source integrated with a silicon-based chip. A blog post published by the lab last week.
The achievement means China has filled “one of the few gaps” in optoelectronic technology, state media outlet People’s Daily reported on Friday.
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Silicon photonics relies on optical rather than electrical signals for transmission. The institute says it aims to address constraints imposed by current technology as the transmission of electrical signals between chips approaches physical limits.
Semiconductor wafers seen at an industrial expo in Shanghai, China. Photo: Bloomberg alt=Semiconductor wafers seen at an industry expo in Shanghai, China. Photo: Bloomberg>
Established in 2021 with 8.2 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) of government funding, JFS is one of China’s leading institutions with a mission to pursue technological breakthroughs.
Major companies in the global semiconductor industry have poured resources into advances in silicon photonics, which are seen as the future for manufacturing better chips for data and graphics processing and even artificial intelligence (AI). Still, companies face challenges in translating scientific advances into commercial products.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s top contract chipmaker, is one of the companies working on this technology. The company’s vice president, Douglas Yu Chenghua, said last year that “superior silicon photonics integrated systems” could address key issues in energy efficiency and computing power in the AI era.
The development will bring a “paradigm shift” to the industry, he said.
American chip design giants Nvidia and Intel, as well as China’s Huawei Technologies Co., are paying attention to advances in silicon photonics. The global market for silicon photonics chips is expected to reach US$7.86 billion by 2030, up from US$1.26 billion in 2022, according to estimates by the international semiconductor industry association SEMI.
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Companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company see silicon photonics as the future of chip design. Photo: Reuters alt=Companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company see silicon photonics as the future of chip design. Photo: Reuters>
Silicon photonics could present an even bigger opportunity in China, where traditional semiconductor development has been hampered by U.S. export restrictions on advanced chip manufacturing technology.
Silicon photonics chips, unlike electrical chips, do not rely on high-end extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment and can be manufactured domestically using “relatively mature raw materials and equipment,” says the Beijing-based company. said Sui Jun, president of semiconductor start-up company Shintone. Local media reported in 2022.
EUV equipment needed to make advanced chips is seen as the Achilles’ heel of China’s semiconductor industry, as domestic companies struggle to mass-produce such equipment. Netherlands-based ASML, which has a de facto monopoly on EUV equipment, stopped exporting equipment to China in 2019.
A report released in January by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a U.S. think tank, said silicon photonics could become “the new front line in the U.S.-China technology race.”
“U.S.-led export restrictions are likely to set back China’s ability to manufacture conventional chips, but they also allow China to devote more resources to emerging technologies that will play a key role in next-generation semiconductors. may inadvertently stimulate investment,” Matthew Reynolds, a former economics program fellow at CSIS, wrote in the report.
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