China, Japan, and South Korea are all on the move.
A silent war for the leading position in photonic semiconductors is unfolding, with photonic semiconductors set to become the foundation for cutting-edge technologies such as future artificial intelligence (AI), 6G, and autonomous driving. Industry forecasts suggest that if Nvidia dominates the photonic semiconductor market, it will be able to surpass the influence and status it currently enjoys in the AI semiconductor market.
Japan and South Korea Accelerate Photonic Semiconductor Infrastructure Construction
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan has recently been vigorously developing the semiconductor industry in Kyushu, Tohoku, and Hokkaido, aiming to revitalize Japan's semiconductor industry. Japan also regards photonic semiconductors as the main focus of this semiconductor industry.
According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan's "Semiconductor Strategy," Japan is currently implementing a three-stage semiconductor reconstruction plan. The first stage is to ensure domestic production capacity, the second stage is to establish the next generation of semiconductor technology, and the final stage is to establish the foundation for global future technology. In the third stage, Japan plans to regain the leadership position in the semiconductor industry, focusing on optoelectronic semiconductor technology.
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With the Japanese government's large-scale investment, private companies are also showing a positive attitude towards the development of photonic semiconductors.
Japan's largest communication company, NTT, is collaborating with domestic and South Korean and American companies to develop the core technology of the next-generation communication platform "IOWN"—photonic semiconductors. IOWN is expected to be used in 6G, which is anticipated to become widespread around 2030. This requires photonic semiconductors to replace electronic processing with light and reduce power consumption.The companies involved in this collaboration include Japanese companies such as Shinko Electric Industries, a semiconductor substrate manufacturer, and Kioxia, a semiconductor memory manufacturer, as well as American companies like Intel in the field of computational semiconductors and South Korean company SK Hynix, which has strong capabilities in memory semiconductors.
South Korea is also continuing its efforts to develop and commercialize photonic semiconductors. In 2022, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in South Korea developed a silicon photonic semiconductor chip capable of transmitting data at a rate of 100 gigabits per second (100Gbps). This is twice the transmission speed of existing electronic semiconductor chips. The research team, utilizing core photonic semiconductor technology in collaboration with Oisolution, developed a 100Gbps optical transceiver module capable of 2-kilometer transmission in data centers. They also developed an optical interconnect module that links four channels to achieve 400Gbps performance, confirming its usability.
In 2023, a research team led by Professor Sang-Jin Kim from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology discovered a new optical coupling mechanism that can increase the integration of photonic semiconductor devices by more than 100 times. The higher the integration of semiconductors, the more computations can be performed, and the lower the process cost. However, due to the wave nature of light, photonic crosstalk occurs between adjacent elements, making it difficult to increase the integration of photonic semiconductors. The research team discovered a new optical coupling mechanism and developed a method to improve integration even under polarization conditions previously considered impossible. Professor Sang-Jin Kim said, "The interesting aspect of this research is that it utilizes leaky waves (light with properties of diffusing to the side), which were previously thought to increase light confusion, to eliminate the confusion instead." He added, "If we apply the optical coupling method using leaky waves discovered in this research, we will be able to develop various photonic semiconductor devices that are smaller and have less noise."
The Nano Technology Guidance Center of the Southwest Business Commercialization Headquarters of the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology recently successfully completed the construction of a high-value photonic semiconductor commercialization infrastructure project based on micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and has begun full-scale operation. The project, which lasted from June 2020 to September last year, invested a total of 9.8 billion won, including 6.9 billion won in national funds and 2.9 billion won in municipal funds. The aim was to build an infrastructure for the development, verification, testing, and evaluation of MEMS-based optical semiconductors to promote the development of the optical semiconductor industry. By installing new equipment such as plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD), high-speed etching equipment (Deep RIE), and exposure equipment (Stepper) as core equipment for 8-inch corresponding equipment, an integrated process line was completed. This is expected to greatly improve the technical level of small and medium-sized companies in the region related to MEMS sensors and fifth-generation (5G) corresponding equipment and other optical semiconductors.
China's Photonic Chip Enterprise Settles in Tianjin
China's first photonic semiconductor foundry, Zhongke Xintong, announced at the end of 2023 that it will build China's first photonic semiconductor foundry in Tianjin. The photonic chip foundry production line of Zhongke Xintong is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2025. At that time, it will provide customers in fields such as optical communication, data centers, artificial intelligence, microwave photonics, autonomous driving, biosensing, and quantum information with photonic wafer foundry services including lithium niobate and silicon nitride materials, laying a solid foundation for the independent and controllable photonic chip industry chain.
A research team from Tsinghua University announced the development of an ACCEL chip that uses photonic technology to improve performance with lower power consumption. The ACCEL chip developed by the research team was manufactured by SMIC, a Chinese semiconductor foundry, using traditional transistor manufacturing processes that have been in place for 20 years. It recorded a computing speed of 4.6 petaflops (PFlops) in the laboratory environment. 1 petaflop (PF) is equivalent to 1000 trillion calculations per second, which is 3000 times faster than Nvidia's A100 graphics processing unit (GPU). Energy efficiency is improved by using very little electricity. Researchers explained that ACCEL can operate for more than 500 years with the electricity consumption of existing semiconductors in one hour. With reduced power consumption, heat dissipation is also reduced. After the heat generation is reduced, miniaturization becomes easier. It is estimated that the chip is difficult to commercialize immediately, but it is expected to be applied to cutting-edge technologies such as wearable devices, electric vehicles, and smart factories through technological improvements. Mass production of photonic semiconductors is also being studied. It is reported that a research team from the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed a mass production technology for photonic semiconductors. Existing photonic chips are made of lithium niobate, which is difficult to manufacture and progress is difficult. Therefore, the research team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences used lithium tantalate, which is a single-crystal thin film with similar electro-optic conversion characteristics to lithium niobate and is easy to manufacture. Lithium tantalate is a crystal material used for optical and electronic devices, used in fields such as ultrasonic transducers, optical switches, and lasers. Based on this, the research team applied heterogeneous integration technology to manufacture high-quality silicon-based lithium tantalate thin film wafers. In addition, an ultra-low loss lithium tantalate photonic device nano-processing method was developed, and a lithium tantalate photonic chip was successfully manufactured.
Foundry giants are fully promoting the commercialization of photonic semiconductors
TSMC is working with large fabless companies such as Nvidia and Broadcom to jointly develop silicon photonics and packaging technology. It is reported that a R&D team of more than 200 people has been established to develop related technologies. According to industry insiders, mass production is expected to start as early as this year or next year.
Intel officially launched a silicon photonic transceiver in 2016, which can transmit data at a speed of 100 gigabits per second (Gb) through optical fiber cables. Intel plans to secure a leading position in the field of photonic semiconductors through active cooperation with Tower Semiconductor, an Israeli semiconductor company. Tower Semiconductor is a foundry specializing in the development of analog semiconductors such as CMOS sensors and PMICs (power management semiconductors), and also has its own silicon photonic development platform.*Disclaimer: This article is an original creation by the author. The content of the article represents the author's personal views. Our reposting is solely for the purpose of sharing and discussion, and does not represent our endorsement or agreement. If there are any objections, please contact the backend.
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