In September 2024, the laboratory successfully lit the laser light source integrated into the silicon-based chip, which is also the first successful realization of this technology in China.
This achievement uses the heterogeneous integration technology developed by Jiufengshan Laboratory, and completes the process integration of indium phosphide laser inside the 8-inch SOI wafer after a complex process.
This technology is known as "chip out of light" in the industry, which uses optical signals with better transmission performance to replace electrical signals for transmission, which is an important means to subvert the signal data transmission between chips, and the core purpose is to solve the problem that the current inter-chip electrical signal is close to the physical limit.
It will play a revolutionary role in promoting data centers, computing centers, CPU/GPU chips, AI chips and other fields.
On-chip optical interconnects based on silicon-based optoelectronic integration are considered to be an ideal solution to break through the bottlenecks of integrated circuit technology development in the post-Moore era, such as power consumption, bandwidth, and latency.
At present, the most difficult challenge for the development of the silicon photonics fully integrated platform lies in the development and integration of the "heart" of silicon photonics chips, that is, the light source on the silicon substrate that can emit light with high efficiency. This technology is one of the few blank links in the field of optoelectronics in China.
The silicon photonics process team of Jiufengshan Laboratory collaborated with partners to tackle key problems on 8-inch silicon photonics wafers, heterogeneously bonded III-V laser material epitaxial grains, and then carried out CMOS-compatible device-on-chip fabrication process, which successfully solved the difficulties of III-V material structure design and growth, low material-wafer bonding yield, and heterogeneous integrated wafer on-chip patterning and etching control. After nearly ten years of catching up and tackling key problems, we finally succeeded in lighting the laser in the glitter and realized the "chip light".
