A state-funded semiconductor laboratory in China said it has achieved a “milestone” in the development of silicon photonics that could help the country overcome current technical barriers in chip design and achieve self-sufficiency amid US sanctions.
JFS Laboratory – located in Wuhan, the capital of central Hubei province and a national base for photonics research – was able to illuminate a laser light source integrated with a silicon-based chip, the first time this was successfully done in China , according to a blog post published by the lab last week.
The achievement means China has filled “one of the few gaps” in its optoelectronic technology, state media People’s Daily reported on Friday.
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Silicon photonics relies on optical signals rather than electrical signals for transmission. It aims to address the limitations imposed by current technology as the transfer of electrical signals between chips approaches its physical limit, the laboratory said.
A semiconductor wafer seen at an industry fair in Shanghai, China. Photo: Bloomberg alt=A semiconductor wafer seen at an industry fair in Shanghai, China. Photo: Bloomberg>
Established in 2021 with 8.2 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in government funding, JFS is one of China’s key institutions charged with pursuing technological breakthroughs.
Major players in the global semiconductor industry have devoted resources to developing silicon photonics, which is believed to hold the future for making better chips for data and graphics processing, as well as artificial intelligence (AI). Yet companies have faced challenges in translating scientific breakthroughs into commercial products.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, is among the companies working on the technology. Vice President Douglas Yu Chen-hua said last year that a “good silicon photonics integration system” could address critical issues of energy efficiency and computing power in the AI era.
That development would bring about a “paradigm shift” in the sector, he said.
US chip design giants Nvidia and Intel, as well as China’s Huawei Technologies, are also eyeing advances in silicon photonics. The global market for silicon photonics chips is expected to reach $7.86 billion by 2030, up from $1.26 billion in 2022, according to estimates from SEMI, an international semiconductor industry association.
Companies such as 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 U.S. export controls on advanced chip-making technologies have hampered the development of traditional semiconductors.
Silicon photonics chips can be produced domestically using “relatively mature raw materials and equipment” without relying on advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, unlike electric chips, said Sui Jun, president of the Beijing-based established semiconductor start-up Sintone. as said by local media in 2022.
EUV machines, which are needed for making advanced chips, are considered the Achilles heel of China’s semiconductor industry as domestic companies struggle to mass-produce such tools. Netherlands-based ASML, which has a virtual monopoly on EUV machines, stopped exporting the equipment to China in 2019.
Silicon photonics could become “an emerging front in the US-China technology competition,” according to a report published in January by US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“While US-led export controls are likely to reduce China’s traditional chip production capabilities… [they] could also inadvertently encourage China to devote more resources to emerging technologies that will play an important role in next-generation semiconductors,” Matthew Reynolds, a former economic program officer at CSIS, wrote in the report.
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