china's first photonic chip pilot line opened in wuxi
2024-09-25
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
on september 25, at the 2024 integrated circuit (wuxi) innovation and development conference, the country's first photonic chip pilot line built by the wuxi photonic chip research institute of shanghai jiao tong university was officially put into use, with an estimated annual production capacity of 10,000 wafers.
photonic chips are the core of the new generation of information technology. they can meet the technical needs of transmission, computing, storage, and display in the fields of artificial intelligence, the internet of things, cloud computing, and biomedicine in the new round of scientific and technological revolution. they have become a new driving force for economic growth and an industrial highland for global competition. however, the domestic photonic chip industry has always faced difficulties such as the lack of pilot platforms, high process technology barriers, low yield verification, insufficient capacity conversion, and long tape-out cycles of foreign platforms, which have seriously restricted the "golden period" for the transformation and implementation of innovative achievements.
in 2021, the shanghai jiao tong university wuxi photonic chip research institute project was officially launched in binhu district, wuxi. in october 2023, the project's carrier structure was topped off. in january 2024, the first batch of equipment entered the site. after 8 months of equipment debugging, the country's first photonic chip pilot line was put into use.
in the nearly 6,000 square meters of high-grade micro-nano processing clean room of the photon chip pilot line, you can see equipment neatly arranged, and technicians in clean clothes skillfully operate various equipment and observe the operation of various parameters of the products. in order to meet the dust quantity standards, the 9-meter-high first floor of the clean room is divided into three floors. the main equipment is in the middle floor. in addition to laying pipelines for supplying gas and chemicals, the invisible upper and lower mezzanines are also filled with fresh air systems to transport clean air to maintain positive pressure in the room, and then exhaust the air to the outside through the laid ventilation holes, so that the cleanliness of the workshop reaches the 100-level, 1,000-level, and 10,000-level standards.
it is understood that the total area of the pilot platform is 17,000 square meters, integrating scientific research, production and services, covering the full closed-loop process of thin-film lithium niobate photonic chips from lithography, thin-film deposition, etching, wet method, cutting, measurement to packaging. it can not only provide full-process technical services for universities, research institutes and innovative enterprises, but also incubate projects in the photonic industry, efficiently link with industrial funds, open up the complete chain from product research and development to marketization, and accelerate the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.
according to jin xianmin, director of the wuxi photonic chip research institute of shanghai jiao tong university, rapid iteration and innovation of technology are the key to promoting the industrialization of photonic chips. hardware support, precision equipment, and process closed loop are the three core elements supporting the industrialization of photonic chips. the pilot platform can not only accelerate the flywheel effect of technology iteration, but also promote the continuous optimization of process flow and the improvement of product innovation capabilities.
in order to contribute more new quality productivity in the field of photonic chips, the institute will continue to explore cutting-edge technologies in quantum science and technology and common key technologies in the future. relying on the photonic chip pilot line, it will carry out a three-in-one strategic layout of "platform + incubation + fund", and carry out scientific and technological achievement transformation and incubation and investment-integrated entrepreneurship incubation around new generation information technologies such as core, light, intelligence, and computing. it will create a "photonic core valley" and explore new paradigms for the incubation of hard technology innovation, helping wuxi to create a world-class photonic core valley innovation ecosystem with clustered and large-scale development.
the successful completion of the photonic chip pilot line is a vivid epitome of the binhu district's cooperation with schools and local governments to build a scientific and technological innovation platform and achieve industrial breakthroughs. entering a new stage, the future industrial map of wuxi's "465" modern industrial cluster continues to expand. at present, binhu district is continuously implementing a large number of innovation platforms that match the industry in the comprehensive promotion of the development of future industries such as low-altitude economy, quantum technology, deep-sea equipment, humanoid robots, and synthetic biology. so far, binhu has 9 national-level innovation platforms, 8 provincial-level science and technology public service platforms and 3 new research and development institutions. ding bo, a reporter from the yangtze evening news ziniu news
proofreading faye wong
