Zhaochi Integration: Optical chips usher in important breakthroughs

Zhaochi Integration recently received news that the static performance of its CW DFB laser chip products has successfully passed the test, and it has successively launched a customer sample delivery plan. The products include 70mW/100mW/200mW, which are mainly used in 400G, 800G, and 1.6T high-speed optical modules.

Driven by the expansion of global data centers and the explosive demand for AI computing power, optical communication networks are rapidly evolving from 400G to 800G and even 1.6T. As the "heart" of optical modules, high-speed, high-reliability laser chips have become a key production bottleneck and core value link in the industrial chain.

Following the continuous aging test verification and shipment of DFB laser chip products below 25G, Zhaochi integrated semiconductor laser chips have recently ushered in a new major technological progress - the static performance of CW DFB laser chip products has successfully passed the test, and customer sample delivery plans have been launched. The products include 70mW/100mW/200mW, which are mainly used in 400G, 800G, and 1.6T high-speed optical modules.

This CW series laser chip is another major technological high ground that Zhaochi Integration has conquered after the successful introduction of DFB optical chips into the market. It marks that Zhaochi Integration’s technical strength has reached a new level and is heading towards a new cycle of large-scale commercial expansion.

Overcoming the key processes of CW optical chips

CW lasers are continuous wave lasers (Continuous Wave Laser), which are pure laser light source chips. The mainstream is DFB laser. Its main function is to serve as an external continuous wave light source, providing necessary light sources for 800G/1.6T silicon optical modules and CPO (co-packaged optics) solutions. The market space is clear and the demand for domestic replacement is urgent.

From a market perspective, the current demand for high-speed modules at home and abroad has increased sharply. Optical chips, one of the core raw materials, are in serious shortage. In particular, the supply of CW DFB laser chips, mainly 70mW/100mW/200mW, is the most tight.

On the supply side, although many manufacturers have successively deployed CW laser chip technology, the high technical difficulty, especially the most difficult key process of PQ BH burial growth technology, has blocked many industry pioneers and has become a key indicator to judge whether a company ranks among the first echelon of the industry. This has also led to a serious shortage of production capacity of CW laser chip products with high quality and stable performance. It can be said that CW optical chips are one of the key strategic links in the optical communications industry chain.

Zhaochi Integration has successfully conquered the PQ BH burial growth technology this time. The static performance of the CW series laser chips has also successfully passed the test, and all indicators have reached a level comparable to mainstream competing products. This breakthrough marks that its technical capabilities have reached a new height, and provides a unique opportunity for Zhaochi Integration to achieve cornering overtaking in the field of optical chips.

In fact, since Zhaochi Integration announced its investment in optical chips at the end of 2024, the company has proposed a path map for the gradual implementation of three major technologies: DFB laser chips, CW laser chips, and EML. Today, this path is accelerating.

For example, DFB laser chips below 25G, as a mature product of Zhaochi Integration, have recently received new benefits. Previously, Zhaochi's integrated 25G and below DFB laser chips have passed the burn-in test and have been shipped in small batches. Recently, the 2.5G DFB laser chip has further successfully passed the industry's highest standard test. Finally, with its stable performance and excellent reliability, it has successfully passed the verification of first-line head customers.

The technological breakthrough of CW laser chips and the verification of DFB chips by first-line customers represent that Zhaochi Integrated's products have achieved a key leap from "available" to "reliable", from "entering the market" to "obtaining mainstream recognition", and from "high quality" to "scarcity". This not only opens the door for Zhaochi Integration to increase shipments and market share, but also verifies its complete closed-loop capabilities from R&D to large-scale commercialization, paving the way for the market promotion of higher-speed products in the future.

Create a full-system compound semiconductor platform

Zhaochi Integration is the main body of optical communication chips operated by Zhaochi Semiconductor. At present, Zhaochi Semiconductor has become the world's leading company in LED chip production capacity and a leading company in the technology industry. The GaN and GaAs material technologies that LED chips rely on have the same roots as InP and other compound semiconductor technologies required for optical communication chips.

Based on its insights into "compound semiconductor materials" and "full-band optical chip technology", Zhaochi Semiconductor has firmly transformed and upgraded into a compound semiconductor platform enterprise in recent years, and the growth of Zhaochi Integration means that Zhaochi Semiconductor has successfully expanded its capabilities from lighting and display to the optical communications track with high technical thresholds, demonstrating its technological heritage and R&D system.

Successive breakthroughs in the field of optical chips have verified Zhaochi Semiconductor's technology migration capabilities from LED to compound semiconductors, but the company's technology planning blueprint is not limited to the current optical communications market.

Based on its mature gallium arsenide and gallium nitride material systems and process platforms, Zhaochi's technology development vision has been invested in broad application scenarios with greater growth potential. In the future, it will develop gallium arsenide 9xx nm band and 620nm red light, gallium nitride 450nm blue light and 520nm green light lasers to enter the industrial laser and laser display market.

This means that Zhaochi Semiconductor’s long-term plan is to build a compound semiconductor technology platform covering multiple fields such as optical communications, advanced manufacturing, intelligent sensing and new displays, to achieve diversified realization of technological value, and to start a new cycle of its own.

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