October 21, the General Office of the Guangdong Provincial People's Government issued the “Guangdong Province to accelerate the development of optical chip industry innovation action plan (2024-2030)” (hereinafter referred to as “action plan”), a clear effort to 2030, Guangdong has made more than 10 key optical chip field It is clear that by 2030, Guangdong will make more than 10 breakthroughs in key core technologies in the field of optical chips, create more than 10 “fist” products, cultivate more than 10 first-class leading enterprises with international competitiveness, and build about 10 national and provincial innovation platforms.

It is understood that the optical chip is to realize the basic components of the photoelectric signal conversion, compared with integrated circuits, showing lower transmission loss, wider transmission bandwidth, smaller time delay and stronger resistance to electromagnetic interference, is expected to drive the transformational development of the semiconductor industry, and vigorously support a new generation of network communications, artificial intelligence, intelligent networked vehicles and other high-quality development of the industry.

Breakthroughs in key technologies, accelerate the transformation of pilot plant

The Action Program makes it clear that strengthening the basic research and original innovation capability of optical chips will encourage enterprises, universities, research institutes and other conditional enterprises to carry out basic research on future frontier scientific issues such as monolithic integration, photonic computing, ultra-high-speed photonic networks, flexible photonic chips, and on-chip optical neural networks. Increase R&D investment in high-speed optical communication chips, high-performance optical sensing chips, sensing fusion chips, thin-film lithium niobate materials, indium phosphide substrate materials, organic semiconductor materials, silicon optical integration technology, flexible integration technology, epitaxial growth and epitaxial process, core semiconductor equipment and other directions. Increase the “strong core” project on the optical chip support, will be oriented to the integrated circuit industry, the underlying algorithms and architectural technology R & D subsidies, the first round of mass production before the first round of flow chip subsidies and other industrial policies, extended to the optical chip design automation software (PDA tools), silicon optical MPW flow and other areas.

Guangdong will support enterprises, universities, research institutes, etc. around the high-speed optical communication chip, high-performance optical sensing chip, infrared optical sensing chip, high-performance pass-through sensing fusion chip, thin-film lithium niobate, compound semiconductors, silicon-based (heterogeneous heterostructures) integration, optoelectronic hybrid integration and other fields, the construction of proof-of-concept centers, R & D pilot line and pilot line. Support the pilot platform to actively play its role. Support the pilot platform around the optical chip-related fields, to provide small and medium-sized enterprises with prototyping, quality and performance testing, small batch trial production, process amplification and maturation of a series of services, to promote new technologies, new products to accelerate the maturation. Pilot platforms are encouraged to build various incubation carriers such as crowdsourcing spaces, incubators and gas pedals, and transfer mature technological achievements to enterprises through licensing and sale.

Building Innovation Platforms and Promoting Industrial Clustering

Guangdong will rely on enterprises, universities, research institutes, new research and development institutions and other types of innovation body, layout and construction of a number of optical chip field common technology research and development platform, mainly focusing on basic theoretical research and emerging technologies, subversive technology research. Introducing domestic and foreign strategic scientific and technological forces to cultivate a number of industrial innovation centers, technology innovation centers, manufacturing innovation centers, enterprise technology centers, engineering research centers, key laboratories and other innovation platforms, mainly focusing on key segments of the optical chip. Around the R & D design, proof of concept, small pilot, pilot, inspection and testing, intellectual property rights, personnel training and other specialized service areas, to create a number of public service platforms to promote the innovative development of the optical chip industry.

The Action Program makes it clear that it supports conditional cities to study and introduce special plans for the development of the optical chip industry, and accelerates the introduction of domestic and foreign high-end innovation resources in the field of optical chips. Support Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan and other places to give full play to the basic advantages of semiconductor and integrated circuit industry chain, accelerate the cultivation of optical communication chips, optical sensing chips and other industrial clusters, to create a full industrial chain of optical chips covering design, manufacturing, packaging and testing. Support Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan and other places to rely on semiconductor and integrated circuit industry clusters, planning and construction of specialized optical chip parks with their own characteristics.

Cultivate leading enterprises and strengthen collaborative innovation

Guangdong will introduce a number of leading enterprises and new species of enterprises that gather global resources and occupy a leading position in niche fields. Support conditional optical chip enterprises to carry out mergers and acquisitions and integration around key links in the industrial chain. Explore industry-university-research collaborative research and joint research upstream and downstream of the industry chain, and incubate and nurture a number of science and technology start-ups. Encourage semiconductor and integrated circuit head enterprises to give full play to the advantages of industrial foundation and extend the layout of optical chip-related fields. Support leading optical chip enterprises to increase their R&D and production line layout in Guangdong, and accelerate the formation of optical chip industry clusters. Support foreign-funded optical chip enterprises to build enterprise technology centers, engineering research centers, engineering technology research centers and other types of platforms.

The Action Program points out that Guangdong actively buttresses the strategic layout of national integrated circuits, and strives for a number of national optical chip projects to land in Guangdong. Strengthen the synergistic innovation with Hong Kong, Macao institutions of higher learning, research institutes, docking high-quality scientific and technological achievements, innovative talents and financial capital. Strengthen exchanges and cooperation with enterprises and organizations in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta and other advanced regions in China, and enhance the import of high-quality R&D resources and industrial resources. Establish exchange and cooperation mechanisms with internationally renowned universities, R&D institutions, technology transfer organizations and other types of innovation bodies.

Strengthening and supplementing the chain, cultivating cutting-edge technologies

Tackle key materials and equipment for optical chips. Strongly support the R&D and manufacturing of key materials for optical chips, such as silicon optical materials, compound semiconductors, thin-film lithium niobate, gallium oxide thin films, electro-optical polymers, flexible substrate materials, ultra-surface materials, optical sensing materials, electro-optical topological phase change materials, photoresists, quartz crystals and other optical chips. Strongly promote the etching machine, bonding machine, epitaxial growth equipment and optical vector parameter network tester and other optical chip key equipment R & D and localization alternative. Strongly support the R&D and industrialization of optical devices and core components of optical modules, such as transceiver modules, modulators, reconfigurable optical neural network reasoners, PLC splitters and AWG gratings. Support the R&D and continuous optimization of optical chip-related manufacturing processes such as silicon optical integration, heterogeneous integration, epitaxial crystal growth and epitaxial process, and manufacturing process.

Strengthen optical chip design R&D, manufacturing layout and packaging level. Support optical chip design enterprises to strengthen R&D and industrialization layout around optical communication interconnect transceiver chips, FP/DFB/EML/VCSEL laser chips, PIN/APD detection chips, short-wave infrared organic imaging chips, TOF/FMCW LIDAR chips, 3D visual perception chips and other fields. Increase the layout of production lines and production capacity of optical chips, optical modules and optical devices based on platform materials such as silicon-based, germanium-based, compound semiconductors, thin-film lithium niobate, as well as heterogeneous heterostructural integration of various types of materials, and optoelectronic fusion of multiple functions. Vigorously develop on-chip integration, 3D stacking, co-packaging of optical wave devices and optical chips (CPO) and advanced packaging technologies such as optical I/O interfaces, and promote the upgrading of optical chip packaging and testing process technology and capacity enhancement in line with market demand.

Strengthen the demonstration application of optical chip products. Strongly support the demonstration and application of optical chips in new-generation information and communications, data centers, smart computing centers, biomedicine, intelligent networked vehicles and other industries. Cultivate more application scenarios, increase the application of optical chip products in information transmission, detection, sensing and other fields, and promote the upgrading of semiconductor products in related fields.

Carry out basic research and R&D layout around the cutting-edge theories and technical issues of optical chips. Support enterprises, colleges and universities, research institutions, etc. around the optical neural network chip, optical quantum chip, ultra-sensitive optical sensing detection chip, optoelectronic heterogeneous heterogeneous hybrid integrated chip, microcavity optoelectronic chip, power growth arithmetic optical chip and other technical areas of R & D layout, and strive to realize the principle of breakthroughs, the accumulation of primitive technologies and pioneering breakthroughs. Guangdong to accelerate the promotion of optical chip industry innovation and development clear 26 action priorities