The Action Plan for Accelerating the Innovation and Development of the Optical Chip Industry in Guangdong Province (2024-2030) issued by the Public Security Department of the Guangdong Provincial Government aims to promote the rapid development of the optical chip industry, with a view to achieving at least 10 key core technology breakthroughs in the field of optical chips by 2030, creating more than 10 competitive products, cultivating more than 10 world-class leading enterprises, and building about 10 national and provincial innovation platforms to form a new 100-billion-level industrial cluster. The plan proposes 18 key tasks, covering key technological breakthroughs, pilot transformation, innovation platform construction, industrial agglomeration, leading enterprise cultivation and cooperative collaborative innovation. At the same time, the plan also proposes 8 key projects, including key materials and equipment, industrial chain strengthening and chain construction, core product demonstration and application, and cutting-edge technology industry cultivation, etc., to promote the overall progress and high-quality development of the optical chip industry. Through these measures, Guangdong Province aims to occupy a more important position in the global semiconductor industry and provide a solid technical foundation for the development of next-generation network communications, artificial intelligence, intelligent networked vehicles and other industries.
1) Improvement of basic research and innovation capabilities
Compared with integrated circuits, optical chips are the basic components for photoelectric signal conversion, which show lower transmission loss, wider transmission bandwidth, smaller time delay and stronger anti-electromagnetic interference ability, which is expected to drive the transformative development of the semiconductor industry and strongly support the high-quality development of the new generation of network communications, artificial intelligence, intelligent networked vehicles and other industries.
The Action Plan aims to strengthen the basic research and innovation capabilities of the optical chip industry, and encourage enterprises, universities and scientific research institutions to conduct basic research on cutting-edge scientific issues such as monolithic integration, photonic computing, ultra-high-speed photonic networks, flexible photonic chips and on-chip optical neural networks. At the same time, the plan emphasizes increasing R&D investment in high-speed optical communication chips, high-performance optical sensing chips, synaesthesia fusion chips, and key materials and technologies, including thin-film lithium niobate, indium phosphide substrates, organic semiconductor materials, silicon photonics integration technology, etc. In addition, the plan also proposes to expand the support of the "strong core" project for the optical chip industry, and extend the relevant policies of the integrated circuit industry to the fields of optical chip design automation software and silicon photonics multi-project wafer tape-out.
In order to accelerate technology maturity and product development, the plan also proposes to accelerate the construction of proof-of-concept centers, R&D pilot lines and pilot lines, and support enterprises, universities and scientific research institutions in the fields of high-speed optical communication chips, high-performance optical sensor chips, infrared optical sensor chips, high-performance synaesthesia fusion chips, thin-film lithium niobate, compound semiconductors, silicon-based integration and optoelectronic hybrid integration. The pilot platform will provide SMEs with a range of services from prototype manufacturing to low-volume pilot production to promote the rapid maturity of new technologies and products. At the same time, the pilot platform is encouraged to provide verification services for the first set of equipment and the first batch of new materials in the field of optical chips, and provide policy and financial support for eligible projects. In addition, the plan also encourages the pilot platform to establish incubation carriers such as maker spaces, incubators and accelerators to cultivate emerging enterprises in the field of optical chips.
2) Introduce leading enterprises and the construction of innovation consortiums
Guangdong is committed to introducing top enterprises and innovative enterprises in the key areas of optical chips and the core links of the industrial chain. It will support qualified optical chip companies to expand their business scale and enhance market competitiveness through mergers and acquisitions. At the same time, industry leading enterprises are encouraged to cooperate with domestic and foreign counterparts, universities and scientific research institutions to establish future industrial innovation alliances, jointly promote industry-university-research cooperation and industrial chain collaborative research, so as to incubate and cultivate technology-based start-ups. Guangdong Province also encourages leading companies in the semiconductor and integrated circuit industries to take advantage of their industrial advantages and expand into optical chip-related fields.
Guangdong Province actively connects with the national integrated circuit strategic layout to attract national optical chip projects to settle in the province. At the same time, it will strengthen cooperation with institutions of higher learning and scientific research institutions in Hong Kong and Macao, introduce high-quality scientific and technological achievements, innovative talents and financial capital, and accelerate the formation of technological innovation and industrial innovation achievements. The province has also strengthened exchanges and cooperation with enterprises and institutions in advanced regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta, explored cross-regional collaborative cooperation models, and introduced high-quality R&D and industrial resources. In addition, Guangdong Province has also established an exchange and cooperation mechanism with internationally renowned universities, R&D institutions and technology transfer institutions to promote the exchange of technology and talents.
3) Key technology research and industrial upgrading
The "Action Plan" proposes eight key research projects, aiming to promote the R&D and manufacturing of key equipment for optical chips, including etching machines, bonding machines, epitaxial growth equipment and optical vector parameter network testers, etc., so as to achieve localized substitution and accelerate equipment upgrading. At the same time, the plan emphasizes the research and development of key materials for optical chips, such as silicon photonic materials, compound semiconductors, thin films of lithium niobate, gallium oxide films, etc., as well as electro-optical polymers, flexible substrate materials and metasurface materials, etc., to support the research and development and manufacturing of these materials. In addition, the solution strongly supports the R&D and industrialization of core components of optical devices and optical modules, including transceiver modules, modulators, reconfigurable optical neural network inferents, etc., and promotes the continuous optimization of optical chip manufacturing processes such as silicon photonics integration and heterogeneous integration.
The Action Plan also emphasizes the importance of improving the design and manufacturing layout of optical chips, and improving the level of optical chip packaging. The plan encourages optical chip design enterprises to strengthen R&D and industrialization layout in the fields of optical communication interconnection transceiver chips, laser chips, and detection chips, and supports technologically advanced optical chip IDM and Foundry enterprises to increase the production line and production capacity layout of platform materials such as silicon-based, germanium-based, and compound semiconductors.
