The world's first 8-inch silicon photonic thin film lithium niobate optoelectronic integrated wafer rolled off the production line - Xunshi Optoelectronic Communication Network (iccsz.com)

Abstract:The world's first 8-inch silicon photonic thin film lithium niobate optoelectronic integrated wafer was rolled off the production line in Jiufengshan Laboratory.

On February 20, 2024, the world's first 8-inch silicon photonic thin film lithium niobate optoelectronic integrated wafer rolled off the production line in Jiufengshan Laboratory. This achievement uses 8-inch SOI silicon photonics wafers to bond 8-inch lithium niobate wafers, and monolithically integrates photoelectric transceiver functions, which is currently the most advanced technology for photoelectric integration of silicon-based compounds in the world. This achievement can realize the large-scale manufacturing of high-end optical chips with ultra-low loss and ultra-high bandwidth, and is currently the world's best comprehensive performance optoelectronic integrated chip. This achievement was developed by Jiufengshan Laboratory and important industrial partners, and will be commercialized as soon as possible.

The world's first optoelectronic integration on 8-inch SOI lithium niobate thin film

Thin-film lithium niobate plays an important role in filters, optical communications, quantum communications, aerospace and other fields due to its excellent performance. However, lithium niobate materials are brittle, and the preparation process of large-size lithium niobate wafers is difficult, and the preparation process of lithium niobate micro-nano processing has always been regarded as a challenge. At present, the industry's research and development of thin-film lithium niobate is mainly focused on the preparation of 3-inch, 4-inch and 6-inch wafers and on-chip micro-nano processing technology.

Figure 1: Thin-film lithium niobate waveguide

Based on 8-inch thin film lithium niobate wafers, the process center of Jiufengshan Laboratory has developed a matching deep ultraviolet (DUV) Lithography, micro-nano dry etching and thin-film metal technology, successfully developed the first 8-inch silicon photonic thin film lithium niobate wafer, realizing the integration of low-loss lithium niobate waveguide, high-bandwidth electro-optical modulator chip and high-bandwidth transmitter chip. This achievement provides a promising industrialization technology route for the development and ultra-large-scale photonic integration of thin-film lithium niobate photoelectric chips, and provides process solutions for high-performance optical communication application scenarios.

About TFLN:

In recent years, photonic integration technology has received great attention due to the strong drive of 5G communication, big data, artificial intelligence and other industries. Lithium niobate is considered to be an ideal photonic integration material due to its large transparent window, low transmission loss, good physical properties such as optoelectric/piezoelectric/nonlinearity and excellent mechanical stability, while single-crystal thin film lithium niobate provides the best comprehensive performance solution for solving the long-standing requirements of low transmission loss, high-density integration and low-key power consumption in the field of photonic integrated chips.

With the increase in modulation rate requirements, the advantages of thin-film lithium niobate will become more obvious, bringing great potential to future communication technologies. It is expected that after 2025, thin-film lithium niobate will be gradually commercialized. According to the QYResearch survey report, the global thin-film lithium niobate modulator market will reach USD 2,043.1 million in 2029, growing at a CAGR of 41% from 2023 to 2029. In the future, with the realization of important devices such as light source, optical modulation, and optical detection based on lithium niobate, lithium niobate photonic integrated chips are expected to become an important platform for high-speed, high-capacity, and low-energy optical information processing like silicon-based integrated circuits, and demonstrate their application value in the fields of optical quantum computing, big data centers, artificial intelligence, and optical sensing lidar.