Changguang Huaxin: 40W laser chip is expected to be the mainstream in the next two years in the recovery of industrial fiber laser market

On March 9, Changguang Huaxin accepted the survey of 9 institutional units, including QFII, others and fund companies. In this survey, Changguang Huaxin disclosed its plans in terms of products and applications.

It is expected that 40W chips will be the mainstream in the next two years

Changguang Huaxin's main business is the research, development, production and sales of semiconductor laser chips, devices and modules. The main products are semiconductor laser chips, devices and modules and other core components of the laser industry. The products can be widely used in the fields of fiber lasers, solid-state lasers, ultra-fast lasers and other optical pumping laser pump sources, national strategic high-tech, scientific research, medical beauty, laser radar, 3D sensing, artificial intelligence and other fields.

The power, brightness and reliability of the laser chip, as the core indicators, directly affect the performance, volume and cost of the laser system, and are the premise and guarantee for realizing the miniaturization, lightweight and intelligent of the laser system. In February this year, Changguang Huaxin launched a single-tube chip with a maximum power of more than 66W for the first time in the industry (the heat sink temperature is room temperature), with a chip width of 290 μ m. The maximum efficiency is more than 70%, and the working efficiency is more than 63%, which is the reported strip width of 400 μ The highest level of high-power laser chips below m. For the 66W single-tube chip, Changguang Huaxin said in the survey that it was a research and development progress.

Changguang Huaxin single chip

The improvement of chip wattage should be combined with module and system applications, and stability, reliability and large-scale production should be considered. Changguang Huaxin believes that at this stage, 35W and 40W chips are the most cost-effective products in the industrial field, and it is expected that 40W chips will become the mainstream in the next two years.

In the field of silicon optical chips, Changguang Huaxin said that there are few domestic silicon optical chips at present. If so, it may also be in the R&D stage rather than commercialized products. At present, silicon optical chips used in domestic 400G and 800G optical modules are still imported. For this reason, Changguang Huaxin is also laying out the silicon optical platform track, aiming to realize the localization replacement of silicon optical chips as soon as possible.

Looking forward to the application of GaN in laser display field

As one of the few IDM semiconductor laser enterprises in the world with key process production capabilities such as 6-inch line epitaxy and wafer manufacturing, Changguang Huaxin has always adhered to high standards and strict requirements in the design, production and quality management of vehicle-mounted radar chips to build a benchmark for domestic laser chips. At present, Changguang Huaxin has established cooperative relations with many domestic first-line laser radar manufacturers to cooperate with the customer's project progress. The product stage covers the stages of early proofing, small batch trial production, and other stages. The main indicators of several products have met the customer's requirements. This time, it passes the vehicle specification certification, which will further accelerate the batch supply of products.

For the development of driverless cars, Changguang Huaxin said that the domestic driverless cars are actually based on three kinds of sensors: CCD, laser radar and millimeter wave radar. Tesla has not adopted the method of laser radar, but more focused on intelligent algorithms and simulated human brain for judgment. This ultimate goal can not be achieved at a time. This is also the reason why Tesla will install millimeter wave radar this time. It is not ruled out that when the cost of laser radar is reduced to a certain extent, it will also install laser radar.

At this stage, in terms of unmanned vehicles, because each sensor has its advantages and disadvantages, there is no sensor to replace which sensor. The company completed the certification of 16949 vehicle specification system in December last year, and is now doing the reliability verification of AECQ products, which is expected to be completed in the near future.

Gallium nitride is a representative material system in the third generation of semiconductors. Gallium nitride blue-green laser will have great application advantages and irreplaceable role in laser display, non-ferrous metal processing and other fields in the future. In November 2022, the "GaN Laser Joint Laboratory" of the Suzhou Semiconductor Laser Innovation Research Institute and the Suzhou Nanometer Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was officially inaugurated in Suzhou Changguang Huaxin., The construction of the "Gallium nitride laser joint laboratory" is an important horizontal business expansion of the research institute around the core semiconductor laser field, which will expand the current core semiconductor laser of Changguang Huaxin from the short-wave infrared and near-infrared fields to the visible light field.

Based on GaN material system, the laser chip spectrum is extended to the blue-green visible light field. At the application level, first, material processing, including laser welding, has advantages in non-ferrous metal welding; Second, it is applied to LDI laser direct writing, which can be applied to the field of PCB lithography direct writing; Third, the company's most important future application of laser display, both in large-screen display and micro-projection, has application potential.

Industrial fiber laser market is recovering

Speaking of the performance outlook in 2023, Changguang Huaxin said that the industrial fiber laser market is recovering and the recovery momentum has shown. With the explosive growth of new energy industry and other applications, it is believed that it will exceed the past level. At the same time, the company's orders in special scientific research fields have been landing in succession, and this year will be a year of accelerated growth.

Changguang Huaxin has mastered the manufacturing of high power laser chips. The company has four core technologies: epitaxial growth technology, FAB wafer process, cavity surface passivation technology, and high brightness beam combining (optical coupling technology), of which cavity surface passivation technology is the core. At present, the main constraint of the company is the cavity surface passivation technology, and the related core equipment needs to be self-made. For example, to be in 200 μ The window of about m emits a high-wattage continuous laser with a power density of tens of megawatts. If the passivation is not done properly, the cavity surface will be damaged, and then the chip will fail, and the chip needs to work for 100000 hours.

For the industry competition, Changguang Huaxin said that capital investment will promote the development of the industry, but this is a heavy asset, large capital, long-term investment, and high technical barriers in the field of laser chips, technology accumulation and production line construction will take some time. The company will maintain its leading position in the industry with the advantages of technology accumulation, process manufacturing and manufacturing scale. In addition, in 2023, the company will increase investment in R&D personnel and increase high-end leading talents.

Source: OFweek laser network