China is claiming a breakthrough in silicon photonics that could overcome the technical hurdle

A state-funded semiconductor lab in China said it has reached 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.

The JFS lab – based in Wuhan, the capital of central Hubei province and a national base for photonics research – has managed to light a laser light source integrated with a silicon-based chip, the first time this has been 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 optoelectronics technology, the state-run People’s Daily reported on Friday.

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Silicon photonics relies on optical signals instead of electrical signals for transmission. It aims to address the constraints imposed by current technology as the transmission of electrical signals between chips approaches its physical limit, the lab said.

A semiconductor wafer seen at an industrial exhibition in Shanghai, China. Photo: Bloomberg alt=A semiconductor board seen at an industrial exhibition in Shanghai, China. Photo: Bloomberg>

Established in 2021 with 8.2 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in government funding, the JFS is one of China’s key institutions tasked with pursuing technological breakthroughs.

Major players in the global semiconductor industry have devoted resources to advancing silicon photonics, which is believed to hold the future for making better chips for data processing and graphics, as well as artificial intelligence (AI). However, businesses have faced challenges in translating scientific discoveries into commercial products.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chip maker, is one of the companies working on this technology. Its vice president, Douglas Yu Chen-hua, said last year that a “good silicon photonics integration system” could address critical issues in energy efficiency and computing power in the AI ​​era.

This development would bring a “paradigm shift” in the industry, he said.

US chip design giants Nvidia and Intel, as well as China’s Huawei Technologies, are also pursuing advances in silicon photonics. The global silicon photonic chip market is expected to reach $7.86 billion by 2030, rising from $1.26 billion in 2022, according to estimates by SEMI, an international semiconductor industry association.

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Companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company see silicon photonics as the future of chip design. Photo: Reuters alt=Companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company see silicon photonics as the future of chip design. Photo: Reuters>

Silicon photonics may present an even greater opportunity in China, where US export controls on advanced chip-making technologies have hindered the development of traditional semiconductors.

Silicon photonic chips can be produced domestically using “relatively mature raw materials and equipment” without relying on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, unlike electrical chips, Sui Jun, the start-up’s president, was quoted as saying of semiconductors in Beijing, Sintone. as the local media said in 2022.

EUV machines, needed to make advanced chips, are considered the Achilles heel of China’s semiconductor industry as domestic firms struggle to mass-produce such tools. Netherlands-based ASML, which has a virtual monopoly on EUV machines, stopped exporting equipment to China in 2019.

Silicon photonics could become “an emerging front in the US-China technology competition,” according to a report published by the US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in January.

“While US-led export controls will likely nullify China’s traditional chipmaking capabilities… (they) could also inadvertently incentivize China to devote more resources to emerging technologies that will play an important role in next-generation semiconductors,” Matthew Reynolds, former economics program fellow at CSIS, wrote in the report.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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