Chip war: China claims breakthrough in silicon photonics that could clear technical hurdle
A Wuhan-based lab has announced a ‘milestone’ that could help China overcome restraints imposed by traditional chip-design technology
A state-funded semiconductor lab in China said it has achieved a “milestone” in the development of silicon photonics, which could help the country overcome current technical barriers in chip design and achieve self-sufficiency amid US sanctions.
JFS Laboratory – based in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province and a national base for photonics research – was able to light up 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 that China has filled “one of the few blanks” in its optoelectronics technology, state media People’s Daily reported on Friday.
Silicon photonics rely on optical signals instead of electric signals for transmission. It aims to address the restraints imposed by current technology, as the transmission of electric signals between chips is approaching its physical limit, the lab said.
Established in 2021 with 8.2 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) in government funding, JFS is one of China’s key institutions tasked with pursuing technological breakthroughs.
That development would bring about a “paradigm shift” in the industry, he said.
Silicon photonics may present an even bigger opportunity in China, where US export controls on advanced chip-making technologies have hindered the development of traditional semiconductors.
EUV machines, required for making advanced chips, are considered the Achilles’ heel of the Chinese semiconductor industry, as domestic firms struggle to mass-produce such tools. Netherlands-based ASML, which holds a virtual monopoly on EUV machines, stopped exporting the equipment to China in 2019.
Silicon photonics could become “an emerging front in US-China tech competition”, according to a report published by US think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in January.
“While the US-led export controls are likely setting back China’s capabilities in the manufacture of traditional chips … [they] could also inadvertently incentivise China to devote more resources to emerging technologies that will play an important role in next-generation semiconductors,” Matthew Reynolds, a former economics programme fellow at the CSIS, wrote in the report.