China is conducting parallel research into various chip manufacturing technologies
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China’s researchers report success with new manufacturing method. The technology could circumvent US sanctions. Is a turning point imminent in the chip industry?
China is making progress in creating an independent chip industry. As the South China Morning Post reportedWuhan-based state-funded JFS Laboratory reported a breakthrough in the development of silicon photonics technology last week.
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The technology could represent an important milestone on the way to eliminating existing technical hurdles to developing your own semiconductor designs despite US sanctions.
Possible breakthrough towards our own chip industry
The JFS research facility is part of a national research center for photonics. It has now apparently been possible to operate a laser light source on a silicon chip – for the first time in China. According to the state-run newspaper People’s Daily, China has closed one of the last gaps in its optoelectronic technology.
Silicon photonics uses optical rather than electrical signals to transmit data and could overcome the limitations of today’s technology, where the transmission of electrical signals between chips faces physical limits.
The 8.2 billion yuan (around 1.1 billion euros) JFS laboratory is one of China’s key institutions in this area that aims to achieve technological breakthroughs.
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For China, silicon photonics may represent a greater opportunity as U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductor technologies have hampered the development of traditional semiconductors. Silicon photonics chips can be manufactured using “relatively sophisticated raw materials and equipment” and do not require the state-of-the-art Euv lithography facilities required for most chips.
Euv machines are considered the Achilles’ heel of China’s semiconductor industry as domestic companies struggle to mass-produce such equipment. The Netherlands-based company ASML, which has a virtual monopoly on Euv machines, has been banned from exporting this type of equipment to China since 2019.
Future technology in the starting blocks
Globally, major players in the semiconductor industry are dedicating resources to developing silicon photonics, considered the key to better chips for computing, graphics and artificial intelligence (AI).
Companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Nvidia and Intel, as well as China’s Huawei are working on this technology.
Semi, an international semiconductor industry association, estimates that the market for silicon photonics chips will grow from $1.26 billion in 2022 to $7.86 billion in 2030.
Silicon photonics could become a new arena of technological competition between the US and China, according to a January report by the American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
U.S. export controls are setting back China’s ability to make traditional chips. But they could lead the People’s Republic to invest more resources in emerging technologies that will play an important role in the next generation of semiconductors.
With this progress, China is taking an important step in a strategically important area and could thus strengthen its position in the global technology race. The development is being followed closely by experts and industry observers worldwide.
