With the global scientific and technological innovation into an unprecedented period of intensive and active, optical communication innovation technology continues to improve and accelerate, to new materials, green energy saving, intelligent automation, etc. also put forward higher requirements. cioe2024 came to a successful conclusion, combined with the editor a few days to visit the exhibition of the observation to do a small summary. Editors down the exhibition a few days down the feeling is that, under the pull of AI, from optoelectronic chips and optical devices to optical modules and then to the high-speed direction of rapid upgrading: silicon optical, CPO, thin film lithium niobate, coherent and other new technologies continue to improve the maturity, at the same time, to enhance the productivity of the new quality, and rapid realization of the domestic substitution is also a key point.

800G becomes mainstream, 1.6T continuous upgrading to drive the development of new quality productivity

800G has become mainstream, 1.6T is gradually entering the landing stage, more and more second echelon such as Liante, Junheng, etc. involved in the 800G optical communication wave, Junheng many years do not exhibitors, this year to special exhibitors, and in the booth site and Xinhua San jointly show 400G/800G DEMO; photoelectric chip and optical engine, many vendors show single-wave 200G program, some companies launched an all-optical switch OCS. POET displayed single-wave 200G TX optical engine with integrated EML laser and single-wave 200G RX optical engine with integrated TIA; Eagle's cumulative shipments of single-wave 100G VCSEL chips reached 100K level, and 200G VCSEL chips are in the research and development stage, which are expected to be ready for samples next year.

Green energy saving has become an important development direction of new quality productivity in the optical communication industry

As the whole society's demand for energy saving and emission reduction continues to rise, the optical communication industry will increase its R&D efforts on low energy consumption optical communication equipment. For example, new materials and device designs will be adopted to reduce the energy consumption of optical modules, optical amplifiers and other equipment; the architecture and algorithms of optical communication systems will be optimized to improve energy utilization efficiency. Previously, many companies also exhibited green optical communication products and technologies, such as: See Torch Technology displayed high-performance nanocrystalline thermoelectric materials and microtec, a miniature cooling device, as well as high-dimensional phase change heat transfer technology and heat dissipation system. Also showed the “double carbon” energy-saving high-dimensional heat dissipation system, so that the communication cabinet room base station HVAC energy-saving rate of more than 80%, and built 300,000 sets / year capacity of lean production line. In addition, see torch technology and the domestic head of the joint research and development of the communication bbu centralized cabinet to air-conditioning, communication cabinets to achieve a major breakthrough in the energy-saving rate, an important contribution to the development of green and low-carbon; Changfei launched the “Little Panda” device bias-preserving optical fiber: to help the high-speed development of the green data centers, the fiber optic products in the data center, can reduce energy consumption, the application of which can reduce energy consumption. The application of this fiber optic product in the data center can reduce energy consumption, improve the efficiency of energy use, and provide support for the green development of data centers; Hengtong also launched a new generation of green fiber optic prefabricated rod products in the early days, and was awarded the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's new mode of application of intelligent manufacturing projects, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's national green factories, which demonstrated its scientific and technological innovation in the field of fiber optic manufacturing; last year, Sinochem International also demonstrated the green aramid full-family products at the exhibition. CIIC also displayed its green aramid full family of products at the exhibition last year, bringing customized solutions of non-metallic reinforcing materials for fiber optic cables to the optical communication industry.

Intelligent automation upgrading is the trend of new quality productivity in optical communication industry

With the continuous iteration of high-speed products, enterprises are faced with if to reduce costs and rapidly increase production capacity. At present, the production and manufacturing of head enterprises are increasingly using automated production lines to improve production efficiency and product quality stability. For example, in the production of optical modules, automated placement, coupling, encapsulation and other processes will continue to be optimized to reduce manual operations and lower production costs. In the area of cardioid chips, Pulsar has designed mechanical arms, assembly lines and other equipment to realize automation on the basis of the original test instruments, which has significantly improved the testing efficiency. For example, its testing machine utilizes a robotic arm to grab optical chips one by one and place them on a “source meter”, which can accurately provide and measure voltage or current. The “source meter” can accurately provide and measure the voltage or current. In 1 microsecond, the “source meter” can complete the test power supply and power test for the optical chips, and automatically detect whether the optical chips are qualified or not, and more than 600 optical chip tests can be completed in one hour; in terms of optical modules, Shanghai multiplexing has also demonstrated a highly integrated optical module test machine on the basis of the original equipment. This equipment can replace the traditional program of the BER meter, test substrate, voltage regulator power supply, etc., and can realize the cooperation with homemade heat flow meter, to realize the code flow, BER, heat flow of the integrated test.

In summary, many companies have been to the new quality productivity direction, although it will face many challenges, but to create a more advanced new quality productivity, improve product technology, reduce costs and expand market share will be the key.