China Launches Thin Film Lithium Niobate & CHIPX Pilot Line
Thin Lithium Niobate Film
With the launch of its first production line for thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic chips, China has entered a new era in photonics and set itself up for fierce competition in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and 6G markets. The Chip Hub for Integrated Photonics Xplore (CHIPX) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University reported this remarkable development on June 5. The Quantum Insider and South China Morning Post covered its effects.
Technology Breakthrough: Photonic Chips and TFLN
Like semiconductor chips, photonic chips process data without electricity. They are faster, more efficient, and consume less power because of this. These qualities help data-intensive quantum communication, large-scale cloud computing, and AI model training.
TFLN, a high-performance optoelectronic material, is the centrepiece of China's new production line. TFLN is prized for its high bandwidth, ultra-fast electro-optics, and low power consumption. The brittle lithium niobate is hard to mass-produce. However, the CHIPX pilot line has overcome this barrier with a completely integrated production chain.
A Decade and a Half of Endeavour
Professor Jin Xianmin, CHIPX's director, credits over 15 years of hard effort for this reliable production process. Professor Jin began photonic device research in 2010, focussing on lithium niobate in 2018. The team spent years improving manufacturing procedures, building small-scale prototypes, and fixing significant issues before this pilot production line. A lengthy and complicated process of design, tape-out, and testing was needed to couple the electrodes to the optical chip.
Beat Global Performance Benchmarks
According to sources, China's new TFLN photonic circuits outperformed international standards in several key benchmarks. CHIPX experts said the chips now exceed a global performance barrier for high-speed optical communications, 110 gigahertz modulation bandwidth. Signal losses, a key chip quality measure, have also decreased.
Installation loss is now less than 3.5 decibels and waveguide loss less than 0.2 per centimetre. These improvements suggest that processors can support complex optical communications better than before. China's TFLN pilot line emerged later than other foreign participants, but it proves that China can innovate.
Advanced Production and Scalability
A major industrial development is the CHIPX pilot line. Over 110 advanced fabrication machines and an integrated production chain are available. The project's researchers aim for technological independence by supervising the entire chip production process, from lithography and etching to packaging.
Even though the manufacturing line uses top-tier international equipment to provide stability and minimise uncertainties in materials science and fabrication, there is a clear strategic aim for future self-sufficiency. Professor Jin noted that some Chinese teams can provide third-party maintenance for current machinery, suggesting the prospect of deploying domestic or reconditioned alternatives.
In 2022, process engineers improved annealing, a heat treatment method used to correct surface imperfections, which helped build the plant in three years. This meticulous approach to photonic chip manufacturing met tight standards, notably for flat surfaces that reduce energy loss.
Built for scale, the pilot line produces 12,000 6-inch wafers annually. This capacity allows the facility to serve commercial clients swiftly as demand rises. Professor Jin noted that the new line permits weekly iteration, which is crucial for quantum photonic technology advancement, whereas before it could take a year to create and test a single device.
Wide-ranging strategic implications and future applications
Chinese photonic chip manufacturing advances have far-reaching effects. The chips should boost quantum computing, 6G, and AI. CHIPX researchers see the pilot line as part of a bigger vision for computing architectures that use light to calculate and send data. This photonic computing method provides natively parallel processing with low latency and energy consumption for training AI models, regulating 6G network loads, and running quantum computations. These lithium niobate photonic chips will be crucial pieces of photonic-electronic integration, connecting multiple computer resources quickly. They also act as computing servers.
Photonic chips can be used for lidar, biosensing, laser gyroscopes, core processing, and communication. This new line affords the field a scalable production method, Professor Jin said, despite steady research progress. Defence dual-use capabilities are also considered.
Large investments in Hangzhou-based Xili Photonics show that China's photonics business is growing. CHIPX is a critical venue for China to catch up to the world's top chipmakers, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The “national pioneer” platform may let scientists, research institutions, and businesses manufacture prototypes in small batches, expediting invention validation.
CHIPX will stabilise production, boost yields, try novel materials, and create 8-inch wafers. This advances China's high-tech economy.
Global Competition Landscape
While other nations have capacity, China is just starting to make TFLN photonic chips. Last year, SMART Photonics began making 4-inch indium phosphide wafers in the Netherlands. GlobalFoundries is modifying a 300-millimeter silicon photonics line with California-based PsiQuantum, which is developing a photonics-based fault-tolerant quantum computer. These companies also focus on quantum and AI. However, using TFLN gives China's facilities a unique technical route and the potential for performance gains. China was late to mass-produce, but its material choices and performance advancements provide it a competitive edge.
